Deaths Date 1979 May | History by KabAstro

May 1 Taisto Mäki, Finnish athlete (WR 2 miles, 5,000m and 10,000m simultaneously 1939-42), dies at 68

Giulio Natta (1903-1979)

May 2 Italian chemist and Nobel laureate, dies at 76

May 3 Erin O'Brien-Moore, actress (Nurse Choate-Peyton Place), dies at 76
May 5 Shirley O'Hara, actress (Wild Party), dies at 68
May 8 Talcott Parsons, American sociologist, dies at 76

Cyrus Eaton (1883-1979)

May 9 Canadian-American financier, industrialist and steel magnate, dies at 95

May 9 Eddie Jefferson, American jazz vocalese singer and lyricist ("Moody's Mood for Love"), shot to death by a disgruntled former employee at 60
May 9 Lan Adomian, Russian-born American composer, dies at 73
May 10 J.B. Morton, British satirist under pen name of Beachcomber (Daily Express "By the Way" column, 1924-75), dies at 85
May 10 Louis Paul Boon, Belgian writer (Eros & the Lonely Man), dies at 67
May 11 Barbara Hutton 'poor little rich girl', American heiress (Woolworth fortune), dies at 66
May 11 Joan Chandler, American actress, dies at 55
May 11 Lester Flatt, American bluegrass guitarist (Flatt & Scruggs - "Foggy Mountain Breakdown"; "Ballad of Jed Clampett"), dies at 64
May 14 Paul van 't Veer, Dutch journalist and writer (Vrije Volk), dies at 57
May 15 Curtis Stevens, American bobsledder (Olympic gold 2-man [with brother Hubert] 1932), dies at 80
May 16 A. Philip Randolph, American labor leader (Railroad Porter's Union), dies at 90
May 17 Donyale Luna [Peggy Ann Freeman], American model and actress "the first Black supermodel", dies of a heroin overdose at 33 [1]
May 21 (Richard Allen) "Blue" Mitchell, American jazz trumpeter (Horace Silver Quintet; Riverside; Blue Note), dies of cancer at 49
May 23 Hubert van Doorne, auto manufacturer (DAF Trucks), dies at 79
May 24 Jan Arvan, actor (Red Skelton Show, Zorro), dies
May 25 John Arthur Spenkelink, American murderer (b. 1949)
May 26 George Brent, American actor (Baby Face, Dark Victory, 42nd St), dies at 75
May 28 William Edmonson, American bass harmony and gospel vocalist (Southernaires), radio, stage and screen actor (Thirty Years Later), dies at 76
May 29 John H. Wood, Jr., American federal judge (US Western District of Texas, 1970-79), assassinated on orders of a drug lord awaiting trial at 63

Mary Pickford (1892-1979)

May 29 Canadian-American silent film actress (Poor Little Rich Girl; Suds; Coquette), producer, and studio founder, known as "America's Sweetheart", dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 87