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Obituary

Obituary

Cynthia Ann Maddox, nee Parry, born 1944, beloved wife of Michael Maddox; devoted mother of Katherine and Patricia Maddox; cherished sister of Marion and Eugenia Parry, died Dec. 2, 2011 from complications following liver surgery. A graduate of South Shore High School, with a B.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.A.T. from Brown University, Cynthia was a docent tour guide for the Chicago Architectural Foundation and Secretary of ARCS (Achievement Awards for College Scientists). More notably she served for 33 years as Dean of Students at Truman College. After her retirement, she continued as an education advocate, becoming an energetic volunteer for the National Council of Jewish Women. A CELEBRATION of the life of Cynthia Maddox will be held on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012 at A New Leaf Studio and Garden, 1820 N. Wells Street, Chicago at 2:30 p.m.
(From a posting on the South Shore Spot newsletter)

Obituary

When Yuri Rasovsky was a little boy growing up in the South Shore neighborhood, he carried on conversations with his teddy bear that were so animated a neighbor who overheard the chats thought his companion was another child — and invited the two of them for milk and cookies.

He would harness that powerful imagination and gift for mimicry, becoming a respected writer, director and producer of hundreds of radio dramas and audiobooks that in his 40-year career drew some of the nation’s best actors to his studio — even when they were getting paid scale.

Often, he adapted classics, such as an audio drama version of The Maltese Falcon. Mr. Rasovsky researched Dashiell Hammett’s classic of hard-boiled detective fiction to craft an adaptation with freshly unearthed material and suspense. He’d lay down sound effects and coax out performances that were so good, his works were nominated for — and won — the Grammy award.

Mr. Rasovsky, 67, died of esophageal cancer Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles.

Even in his final days, his partner, Lorna Raver, could hear him calling out directions to actors in his sleep.

Sandra Oh of “Grey’s Anatomy” worked on The Maltese Falcon with actor Michael Madsen, and she also performed in Mr. Rasovsky’s “Die, Snow White! Die, Damn You — a very GRIMM tale.”

“Being introduced to [performing] radio plays through [Yuri] was like discovering a new fun planet,” Oh said in a text message. “I knew from the second we worked together that I had so much to learn from him. His understanding of the medium, of storytelling and trust in his actors was superlative. He was a great and generous teacher.”

“Most people who worked for Yuri would have worked for him for free because it is so much fun,” said actor Meshach Taylor, best known for his role as Anthony Bouvier on the television show, “Designing Women.” Taylor performed in Mr. Rasovsky’s “The Mark of Zorro,” starring Val Kilmer, which has been nominated for a Grammy as Best Spoken Word Album of the Year. “You have to bring the role alive with just your voice,” he said. “. . . You don’t have to get into costume or makeup.”

“In my opinion, Yuri was the greatest audio dramatist of our modern age. I have often compared him to Orson Welles,” Craig Black, CEO of Blackstone Audio, said in an online tribute. His company bills itself as the nation’s largest independent publisher of audiobooks.

Before moving to Los Angeles, Mr. Rasovsky was a respected local actor. In 1972, he performed the accents of the Windy City on his “Chicago Language Tape” for WFMT. He won a Joseph Jefferson award for his role in the play “Green Julia” in 1976.

In the early 1970s, he founded the nonprofit National Radio Theater of Chicago, where he produced and directed “Of Thee I Sing” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” He traveled to Greece to research his Peabody Award-winning eight-part series, “The Odyssey.”

After he relocated to California, his career began to shift from overseeing narrated versions of books to full-scale productions of audio dramas. He created two works for NPR: an anthology of science-fiction dramas called “2000X,” and “Craven Street,” a five-part series he researched and wrote about Ben Franklin in London that featured Martin Sheen, Elizabeth Montgomery and Sir Nigel Hawthorne.

He started a new company, the Hollywood Theater of the Ear. Its productions included “The Dybbuk,” starring Ed Asner, Carl Reiner and Kris Tabori, and “Saint Joan,” with Amy Irving and Edward Herrmann. Mr. Rasovsky shared in a Grammy; nine Audie awards from the Audio Publishers Association; four Listen-Up awards from Publishers Weekly; a Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, and a lifetime achievement award from the National Audio Theatre Festivals.

His works drew on an encyclopedic knowledge of classic literature and film, said Robin Whitten, editor and founder of AudioFile magazine, where Mr. Rasovsky was a contributing editor.

Blackstone Audio picked up several of the projects he pitched to the company, including the audio drama, “Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls.”

“He was so creative,” Black said. “It had nothing to do with the [Sweeney Todd] movie. He went back and researched the legends behind the story. I believe there were five stories written by various authors from earlier times, and he came up with his own.”

A self-described curmudgeon, he acted like he didn’t like children, and he enjoyed being called by the nickname he gave himself: “El Fiendo T. (The) Mighty.”

“If he wasn’t getting what he wanted” from an actor, Taylor said, “you heard about it, and you heard about it in a hurry.”

Mr. Rasovsky asked that his body be donated to science. A celebration of his life and work is being planned.

Obituary

Obituary

Lynne Weinberg age 64, died of ovarian cancer on June 17, 2009. She was married to Douglas Hill who died in 1998. She is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Mel and Rebecca Weinberg, as well as her niece, Naomi Tselepis (Jim); great- niece, Jane Tselepis and nephew, Nathan Weinberg. She is also survived by her adopted "daughter", Emmy Fishman, and Emmy's son, Stephen Molinares, plus a large number of close friends, who were her Tucson family. Lynne was known to have a comic's wit and maintained her humor throughout her illness. Lynne was a writer and Licensed Clinical Social Worker who lived in Tucson. She was an artist on the Arizona Commission on the Arts artist roster since 1997 and taught poetry and journal writing throughout Arizona. During her social work career, she designed the Foster Home program for Tucson adults with developmental disabilities. Mid-career, she was an outpatient therapist at a mental health clinic and had a small private practice. She retired as a Vice-President from Jewish Family & Children's Service of Southern Arizona where she managed the Intake Office, Volunteer Services, & Community Resources. Originally from Chicago, Lynne moved to Tucson in 1973. As a long-time resident of the central Tucson, she worked with her Blenman Elm Neighborhood Association to bring people together. Recently, she wrote and received neighborhood grants for a water-harvesting workshop and a tree-planting program. More than 50 neighbors participated in these activities. Lynne was a passionate animal lover who always had one to three dogs and cats in residence. Many of her story ideas came from her experiences in the social service arena and as a neighborhood activist. She published short stories, magazine articles, and poetry and in 2007 she won the Martindale Literary Prize. Her book, "Walkers and Other Tribes," a collection of connected short stories about Tucson and the Southwest was published this week. A Celebration of Lynne's life will be held at 11:00 a.m., Sunday, June 21, 2009, at the Tucson Jewish Community Center at River Road and Dodge Blvd. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd. Tucson, AZ 85716, 327-6088. Hope Animal Shelter or to hopeanimalshelter.net, 2011 E. 12th St., Tucson, AZ 85719, 792-9200.

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