Features

Katie Beckett died Friday morning in the same hospital where she'd once made history. Beckett was 3 years old when her case changed health care law. She was 34 when she died. NPR's Joseph Shapiro explains why she was important to other children with disabilities.

German Baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has died — he was 86. Fischer-Dieskau began performing in the 1940s and had a career spanning five decades. He was perhaps best known for his interpretation of Franz Schubert's "Winterreise."

Carlos Fuentes, one of the most influential writers in the Latin American world, died Tuesday at a hospital in Mexico City. He was 83. A prolific writer, Fuentes wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as political nonfiction and essays that criticized the Mexican government during the 1980s and '90s.

Along with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Julio Cortazar, he helped spread Latin American literature to a wider international audience throughout the 20th century, with novels like The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Old Gringo, which became the first Latin American novel to make it to The New York Times best-seller list.

Donna Summer, the queen of disco, died Thursday at her home in Naples, Fla., after a long struggle with cancer. She was 63. Born LaDonna Andrea Gaines, she grew up in a large Boston family singing gospel music and became an icon of a powerful cultural movement, a celebrated sex queen and a staple of gay club life.

She wasn't always comfortable with those roles, and in her later years returned to gospel music. Summer's hits of the '70s and early '80s included Last Dance, Heaven Knows, On the Radio, Bad Girls and She Works Hard for the Money. She had three consecutive No. 1 platinum albums and 11 gold albums, and was a five-time Grammy winner.

This interview was originally broadcast on Feb. 10, 2011.

The British hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, who created some of the most iconic hairstyles of the 20th century, died on May 9 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84.

Sassoon's creations included the geometric, the Wash-and-Wear, the short bob Nancy Kwan wore in The World of Suzie Wong and Mia Farrow's famous pixie cut for Rosemary's Baby.

In 1957, Sassoon developed one of his most singular looks — the asymmetric five-point, a modified version of the classic bob that came to define 1960s fashion.

Disco queen Donna Summer has died of cancer at the age of 63. For many music fans, Summer's soaring voice and glittering style epitomized the excess and electricity of the 1970s. Host Michel Martin takes a look back at her music and her legacy with Mark Anthony Neal, a Duke University professor of black popular culture.

Born LaDonna Gaines, Donna Summer's career began in the 1960s and reached its apex in the disco era of the 70s. She died of cancer on Thursday at her home in Naples, Florida. She was 63 years old.

Pop singer Donna Summer, whose long career began in the 1960s and reached its apex in the disco era of the '70s, died of cancer on Thursday at her home in Naples, Florida. Summer was 63 years old. According to Billboard magazine, the singer born LaDonna Gaines had 32 singles that charted in the Hot 100. Fourteen of them made it into the top 10. To hear Sami Yenigun's appreciation of Donna Summer's life and career, as heard on All Things Considered, click the audio link.

Donna Summer, who sang some of the most memorable anthems of the disco era from "Love to Love You Baby" to "Bad Girls," has died after a long battle with cancer. She had a top 40 hit every year from 1976 to 1984, including the song she once told NPR she'd perform till the very end, "Last Dance."