DIED. DOUG MCCLURE, 59; former broncobuster and star of TV westerns such as The Virginian and The Overland Trail; of lung cancer; in Sherman Oaks, California.
DIED. ARTHUR TAYLOR, 65; jazz drummer and bandleader; in New York City. Known for swinging “like a strong breeze,” in the words of one critic, Taylor recorded albums with John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk. As the leader of his own group, Taylor’s Wailers, he was a mentor to many younger musicians.
DIED. J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT, 89, former Democratic Senator from Arkansas and founder of the international exchange program now known as the Fulbright fellowships; in Washington. A Rhodes scholar, Fulbright was named president of the University of Arkansas at 34, but lost that job soon after his journalist mother wrote an editorial criticizing the state’s Governor. From the beginning of his career in Washington, Fulbright focused on world affairs, submitting, as a freshman Representative in 1943, the resolution that ultimately led to the creation of the United Nations; he initiated the scholars’ exchange program two years later when he reached the Senate. Independent by nature, he cast the lone vote against funding Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist investigation in 1954 and traded blows on foreign policy with every President from Truman to Nixon, though he reserved his greatest criticism for Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War. The televised hearings he led in 1966 and 1967 as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee helped turn popular opinion against the war and endeared him to activists like the young Bill Clinton, who worked on his staff. Fulbright wasn’t always a hero to the left, however, having voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He left the Senate in 1975 after a primary defeat. In 1993 Clinton awarded him the Medal of Freedom.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- L.A. Fires Show Reality of 1.5°C of Warming
- Home Losses From L.A. Fires Hasten ‘An Uninsurable Future’
- The Women Refusing to Participate in Trump’s Economy
- Bad Bunny On Heartbreak and New Album
- How to Dress Warmly for Cold Weather
- We’re Lucky to Have Been Alive in the Age of David Lynch
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- Column: No One Won The War in Gaza
Contact us at letters@time.com