Americans Who Left Us in 2013 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ed Koch

Ed Koch (1924-2013) was of one the more controversial mayors of New York City (though most of the NYC mayors of 20th century could be described that way!), yet also one of the most popular and successful. During his administration, the once near-bankrupt Big Apple had a budget surplus of $500 million by 1983.

In 1981, he was elected to his second term as mayor as the candidate for *both* the Republican and Democratic parties, a rarity in the USA even in the smallest of villages, and NYC had a population of over 7 million that year! Koch's "Mayor: An Autobiography" (1984) was a best-seller, and the feisty mayor hawked his book openly during his TV appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live".

He was elected to a third term thanks to his popularity among blue-collar and Jewish voters, not to mention other ethnic groups, although he alienated advocates for the poor (whom he called "poverty pimps").

After his retirement, he appeared as a judge on the relaunch of "The People's Court" in 1997.

Answer: Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby)

Abigail Van Buren (1918-2013) was the pen name that Pauline Esther "Po-po" Phillips (née Friedman) used for her column "Dear Abby". She created her column to compete with Ann Landers (in real life Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer), who was Phillips's twin sister. Phillips chose the pen name Abigail after the wise Biblical heroine: "Then David said to Abigail ... 'Blessed is your advice and blessed are you." (I Sam 25:32-33 NKJV).

She received up to 9,000 letters per week at the height of her career, from wives, husbands, doctors, lawyers, priests, mistresses -- you name it. Abby also hosted a daily program (1963-1975) on CBS radio.

The popular columnist retired in 2002 and died of complications from Alzheimer's on January 16, 2013.

Answer: Helen Thomas

Born in 1920 in Winchester, KY, Helen Thomas was among the first women allowed to attend National Press Club meetings in the 1950s --although at the time she wasn't allowed to ask questions! Called Dean of the White House Press Corps for her longevity in that group, Thomas was one of the most-recognized reporters in North America. Never one to mince words, she demanded of President Ronald Reagan what right the USA had to invade Grenada in 1983, and she pressed President Nixon on his "secret plan" for winning the Vietnam War. Thomas also helped expose the Watergate scandal through her interviews with Martha Mitchell.

She worked for UPI until 2000, when she joined Hearst until her retirement in 2010. The daughter of Lebanese immigrants, Thomas openly questioned American foreign policy in the Middle East as much as she questioned government secrecy, and near the end of her career she made a few enemies over her remarks against Israel (which led her to take the retirement, and indeed made her anathema in journalism for a while). Nonetheless, upon her death on July 20, 2013, most newspapers and media services honored Helen Thomas and her lifelong devotion to the Fourth Estate.

Answer: C. Everett Koop

Born Charles Everett Koop in 1916 and nicknamed "Chick", he made his fame early in his career as a pediatric surgeon at a time when some doctors objected to performing surgery to save newborns with certain birth defects. He was once described by the Associated Press as "the only Surgeon General to become a household name". He died in 2013; no official cause of death has ever been disclosed.

During Koop's tenure (1982-89), information about AIDS was directly mailed to U.S. households for the first time, and stronger, more graphic warning labels were put on cigarettes. Although a Reagan appointee, religious fundamentalists disliked him firstly because he endorsed sex education, as early as the third grade, that frankly explained how to prevent the spread of STDs with a condom. Secondly, though personally anti-abortionist, he resisted political pressure to proclaim that pregnancy termination is a risky procedure for women. On the other hand, LGBT activists disliked that he emphasized homosexual behavior as a primary disease vector, and other health activists demanded more effort to develop a vaccine/cure for AIDS.

Answer: Slim Whitman

Born Ottis Dewey Whitman Jr. in 1923, in Tampa, Florida, Slim Whitman was also known as The Smilin' Starduster. Whitman may not have been idolized as much as Elvis Presley, but he toured with the King in the 1950s, and the smooth, high-voiced country singer sold more than 120 million records in his lifetime.

His 1955 song "Rose Marie" held the Guinness World Record for the longest time at number one in the UK singles chart (until Bryan Adams surpassed him 36 years later, in 1991). In the USA, he was best known for "Indian Love Call", which was originally written in the 1920s for the musical "Rose-Marie" ("When I'm calling you-oo-oo-oo-oo.."!) In fact, in the movie "Mars Attacks!", that song "Love" was the key to saving the Earth from invasion, in a gentle razz on Slim's astonishing falsetto and yodeling prowess. Slim Whitman died on June 19, 2013 of congestive heart failure in his home state of Florida.

Answer: Betty White

Marcia Wallace, born in 1942, was best known for portraying secretary-receptionist Carol Kester in the MTM sitcom "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-78). She died of pneumonia and sepsis, complications of breast cancer.

Bonnie Franklin, born in 1944, made her name playing single mother Ann Romano in the long-running TV series "One Day at a Time" (1975-84). Pancreatic cancer caused her untimely demise.

Jean Stapleton, born in 1923, was a highly versatile character actress, who most famously played Edith Bunker, the long-suffering wife of a bigot in Queens, NY, on the enormously popular and award-winning sitcom, "All in the Family". She died of undisclosed natural causes.

Betty White (b. 1922), famous for playing the formidable Happy Homemaker on the groundbreaking "Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1970-77) and the ditzy Rose on "The Golden Girls" (1985-1992), continued to work in 2013 and beyond.

Answer: Ray Dolby

Ray Milton Dolby, OBE, was born in in Portland, Oregon, in 1933. In 1961 he won a Marshall Scholarship to study doctoral-level physics at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Research Fellow at Pembroke College. Briefly he served as technical adviser to the UN in India before returning to the States.

In 1965 he invented the Dolby Sound System (for use with analog tape recording), first utilized by Decca Records (UK). The Dolby System involved increasing the volume of low-level high-frequency sounds during recording, and then lowering them during playback, to reduce tape hiss.

He won many awards after founding Dolby Laboratories, which dominated home and cinema audio systems until the Digital Age. Sadly, Ray Dolby, who had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for several years, was diagnosed with leukemia in the summer of 2013, to which he succumbed on September 12.

Answer: Dr. Joyce Brothers

Born in 1927 in Brooklyn, Joyce Brothers attended college at Cornell and earned her doctorate at Columbia. She died in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on May 13, 2013 of respiratory failure.

Dr. Brothers once told "The Washington Post": "I invented media psychology. I was the first. The founding mother." Indeed, the psychologist wrote a daily newspaper advice column from 1960 until almost the day she died in 2013. For nearly 40 years she also wrote a column for "Good Housekeeping". She also hosted psychology programs in radio and television, appeared on innumerable talk shows, guest-starred in TV dramas and comedies, and lectured across the country.

Dr. Brothers was also famous for correctly answering boxing questions on the $64,000 Question -- her success making her the only woman to win the top prize on that program. She also became the America's first woman commentator for boxing, on CBS during the bout between Carmen Basilio and Sugar Ray Robinson.

Answer: Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy (1947-2013) was famous for his espionage, military, and techno-thriller novels, particularly those of his Jack Ryan/John Clark universe, which would start with "Without Remorse" if you ordered them according to when they take place (the 1970s) rather than publication date (1993).

His first published novel, and the first Jack Ryan novel, was "The Hunt for Red October" (1984), and "Debt of Honor" (1994) was another popular installment in that series. He also had a "Splinter Cell" series, and a "Net Force" series, with a young-adult spinoff called "Net-Force Explorers".

Many of his novels were adapted into successful movies, and he also wrote military history and designed video games. Tom Clancy's cause of death on October 1, 2013, has never been publicly disclosed.

Answer: Scott Carpenter

Scott Carpenter was born in 1925 in Boulder, Colorado. He joined the Navy after high school as an aviation cadet. After World War II, he studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he rejoined the Navy's aviation program during the Korean War. Eventually he was chosen for NASA's Project Mercury in 1959.

He became the second American (after John Glenn) to orbit the Earth, and the fourth American in space. He also became the first astronaut to eat solid food in outer space.

His performance as an astronaut was controversial, and after an injury that contraindicated space flight he resigned from NASA in 1967. Carpenter married four times (three divorces) and had seven children. On October 10, 2013, Carpenter passed away from complications due to a stroke. By year's end, then, John Glenn was the very last surviving member of the original Mercury Seven.