Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • A5

Tampa Bay Times Saturday, January 4, 2020 5A FOCUS NOTABLE DEATHS BY MARK KENNEDY Associated Press Tony Award-winning com- poser Jerry Herman, who wrote the cheerful, good-natured music and lyrics for such clas- sic shows as Mame, Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles, died Dec. 26. He was 88. His goddaughter Jane Dorian confirmed his death to the Asso- ciated Press. He died of pulmo- nary complications in Miami, where he had been living with his partner, real estate broker Terry Marler.

The creator of 10 Broadway shows and contributor to several more. Herman won two Tony Awards for best musical: Hello, Dolly! in 1964 and La Cage aux Folles in 1983. He also won two Grammys for the Mame cast album and Hello, Dolly! as song of the year and was a Kennedy Center honoree. He had three original Broadway productions playing at the same time from February 1969 to May 1969. Tributes poured in from Broadway royalty, including from Harvey Fierstein, who wrote the book of La Cage aux Folles alongside songs.

lost one of the Fier- stein tweeted. Herman wrote in the Rod- gers and Hammerstein tradi- tion, an optimistic composer at a time when others in his profes- sion were exploring darker feel- ings and material. Just a few of his song titles revealed his depth of hope: Be Here Tomorrow, The Best of Times, Tap Your Trou- bles Away, Today, We Need a Little Christmas and Before the Parade Passes By. Even the title song to Hello, Dolly! is an adver- tisement to enjoy life. Herman was born in New York in 1931 and raised in Jersey City, N.J.

His parents ran a summer camp in the Catskills and he taught himself the piano. He noted that when he was born, his mother had a view of Broad- Winter Garden Theatre marquee from her hospital bed. Herman dated his intention to write musicals to the time his parents took him to Annie Get Your Gun and he went home and played five of Irving songs on the piano. thought what a gift this man has given a stranger. I wanted to give that gift to other people.

That was my great inspiration, that he told the Associ- ated Press in 1996. After graduating from the University of Miami, Herman headed back to New York, writ- ing and playing piano in a jazz club. He made his Broad- way debut in 1960 contributing songs to the review From A to alongside material by Fred Ebb and Woody Allen and the next year tackled the entire score to a musical about the founding of the state of Israel, Milk and Honey. It earned him his first Tony nomination. Hello, Dolly! starring Carol Channing opened in 1964 and ran for 2,844 performances, becoming lon- gest-running musical at the time.

It won 10 Tonys and has been revived many times, most recently in 2017 with Bette Midler in the title role, a 19th century widowed matchmaker. Mame followed in 1966, star- ring Angela Lansbury, and went on to run for over 1,500 perfor- mances. Herman wrote cheery music, lyrics for Associated Press (1996) Composer Jerry Herman created 10 Broadway shows and contributed to several more. He won two Tony Awards for best musical. He died in December at age 88 in Miami.

BY ANDREW DALTON Associated Press LOS ANGELES Lee Mendel- son, the producer who changed the face of the holidays when he brought A Charlie Brown Christ- mas to television in 1965 and wrote the lyrics to its signature song, Christmas Time Is Here, died on Christmas day, his son said. Mendelson, who won a dozen Emmys in his long career, died at his home in Hillsborough, of congestive heart failure at age 86 after a long struggle with lung cancer, son Jason Mendelson told the Associated Press. Lee Mendelson headed a team that included Peanuts author Charles Schulz, director Bill Melendez, and pianist and com- poser Vince Guaraldi, whose music for the show, including the opening Christmas Time Is Here, has become as much a Christmas staple as the show itself. Mendelson told the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2000 that he was short on time in finding a lyricist for the song, so he sketched out the six verses himself in 15 minutes on the backside of an He found a choir from a church in his native Northern California to sing the song that sets the unforgettable tone, beginning with Mendel- words: time is here, hap- piness and cheer, fun for all that children call, their favorite time of The show won an Emmy and a Peabody Award and has aired on TV annually ever since. The team that made it would go on to create more than 50 network specials, four feature films and many other Peanuts projects.

Mendelson also took other comic strips from newspapers to animated TV, including Garfield, for which he produced a dozen television specials. Mendelson is survived by his wife, Ploenta, his children Lynda, Glenn, Jason and Sean, his stepson Ken and eight grand- children. Man behind Brown Jason Mendelson via Associated Press Producer Lee Mendelson, shown in 2015, wrote the lyrics to Christmas Time Is Here. In passing Gertrude Himmelfarb, 97, conservative scholar Gertrude Himmelfarb, the matriarch of one of the i nent families and a scholar of Vic- torian England who argued force- fully for conserva- tives in the mod- ern i a night at her home in Washington, D.C. She was 97.

Himmelfarb was the widow of neoconservative Irving Kristol. Her son, neocon- servative publisher-commen- tator William Kristol, said the cause was congestive heart fail- ure. Few families contributed as much to modern conservatism, although they did so in different ways. While her husband helped organize an influential net- work of politicians, think tanks and media outlets, and her son became a leading Republican pundit and strategist, Himmel- farb concentrated on social crit- icism and lessons. And often, she directly and indirectly addressed the so-called of recent decades.

Harry Kupfer, 84, German opera director Harry Kupfer, the long- time opera director of Komische Oper, has died at 84. His management agency Arsis said in a state- ment Tuesday that Kupfer died Mon- day lengthy in Berlin. Kupfer career began in Stral- sund, then part of communist East Germany, in 1958. After stations in Chemnitz, Weimar and Dres- den, he became director at the Komische Oper in 1981, a posi- tion he held for 21 years. Kupfer gained international attention with his 1978 production of The Flying Dutchman in Bayreuth.

He worked closely with conduc- tor Daniel Barenboim, first on the 1988 production of Ring cycle also in Bayreuth and on a wider selection of the German works at the Berliner Staatsoper from 1992 onward. Kupfer also directed performances in Sydney, Barce- lona, Helsinki, Salzburg, Shang- hai and New York. Kelly Fraser, 26, singer who covered Kelly Fraser, a Canadian pop artist who gained attention for an Inuit-language cover of Diamonds, part of her advocacy efforts for her indige- nous culture, has died. Fraser was 26. Thor Simon- sen, friend and producer, said he was told the day after Christmas by the fam- ily that she had died.

The fam- ily declined to release details, including the cause of death. Fraser, who grew up in Sanikil- uaq, Nunavut, and was living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, released Isuma, her debut album, in 2014. Her sophomore album, Sedna, came out in 2017 and was nom- inated for indigenous music album of the year at Juno music awards. She was working on a third album, Decol- onize, at the time of her death, Simonsen said. Times news services Himmel- farb FraserKupfer.