National Obituaries

CHICAGO (AP) — Bob Avellini, the former Chicago quarterback who teamed with Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton to lead the Bears to the 1977 playoffs, died Saturday. He was 70. The Bears said Avellini died after a battle with cancer.

TOKYO (AP) — Juro Kara, who helped shape Japan’s postwar avant-garde theater, defiantly yet playfully transforming the essence of Kabuki aesthetics into modern storytelling, has died. He was 84.

MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — Burt Rutan was alarmed to see the plane he had designed was so loaded with fuel that the wing tips started dragging along the ground as it taxied down the runway.

NEW YORK (AP) — Frank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Aaron Thomas, one of the most prolific receiving tight ends in the history of the New York Giants, died last week at his home in Corvallis, Oregon, following a lengthy illness. He was 86.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Sjoukje Dijkstra, the figure skater who in 1964 became the first Dutch athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics, has died at the age of 82.

Peter Oosterhuis, a two-time winner of the European Tour money title who later brought his distinguished British voice to CBS golf telecasts as an analyst, died Thursday. He was 75.

NEW YORK (AP) — Duane Eddy, a pioneering guitar hero whose reverberating electric sound on instrumentals such as "Rebel Rouser" and “Peter Gunn” helped put the twang in early rock 'n' roll and influenced George Harrison, Bruce Springsteen and countle

NEW YORK (AP) — Paul Auster, a prolific, prize-winning man of letters and filmmaker known for such inventive narratives and meta-narratives as “The New York Trilogy” and “4 3 2 1,” has died at age 77.

WINNIPEG — Lyle Bauer, a former CFL player and executive, has died. He was 65. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the team Bauer played for and later served as CEO, announced Bauer's death on its Instagram page Wednesday.