America's Coach

Stone-faced and ramrod-slim as he paced the sidelines in his snap-brim hat, Tom Landry personified Dallas Cowboys football through 29 years as the team's head coach. From 1960 through 1988, Landry's teams earned 270 victories, five Super Bowl appearances and two NFL championships. Fired in 1988, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990 with his star quarterback, Roger Staubach. He died of leukemia at 75.

Doug Henning lent a hippie-ish flair to the sometimes somber world of magic. Spinning tricky illusions in a tie-dye shirt, mop of hair and goofy grin, Henning brought levity to levitation. In recent years he became more devoted to Transcendental Meditation; his dream was to build a spiritual theme park near Niagara Falls. He died of liver cancer at 52.

Latino rapper Christopher Rios (a.k.a. Big Pun) weighed nearly 700 pounds, but his high-speed rhymes flowed with tiptoe agility. He was nominated for a Grammy last year. Pun, 28, died of problems related to his obesity, according to his manager.

Sherry Keene-Osborn, 54, reported for NEWSWEEK from Colorado, covering major news stories such as the JonBenet Ramsey case and the Columbine shootings. She was smart, perceptive and as kind as she was persistent.