2015 deaths

Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 – January 3, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1967 to 1979. A member of the Republican Party, he was the first African American elected to the United States Senate by popular vote. Prior to serving in the Senate, he served as the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1963 until 1967. Edward Brooke was the first African-American since Reconstruction in 1874 to have been elected to the United States Senate and he was the first African-American United States senator since 1881 to have held a United States Senate seat. Edward Brooke was also the first African-American United States senator ever to have been re-elected to the United States Senate.
Born to a middle-class black family, Brooke was raised in Washington, D.C. After attending Howard University, he graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1948 after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. Beginning in 1950, he became involved in politics, when he ran for a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. After serving as chairman of the Boston Finance Commission, Brooke was elected attorney general in 1962, becoming the first African-American to be elected attorney general of any state.
He served as attorney general for four years, before running for Senate in 1966. In the election, he defeated Democratic former Governor Endicott Peabody in a landslide, and was seated on January 3, 1967. In the Senate, Brooke aligned with the liberal faction in the Republican party. He co-wrote the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited housing discrimination. He was re-elected to a second term in 1972, after defeating attorney John Droney. Brooke became a prominent critic of Republican President Richard Nixon, and was the first Senate Republican to call for Nixon's resignation in light of the Watergate scandal. In 1978, he ran for a third term, but was defeated by Democrat Paul Tsongas. After leaving the Senate, Brooke practiced law in Washington, D.C., and was affiliated with various businesses and nonprofit organizations. Brooke died in 2015, at his home in Coral Gables, Florida, at the age of 95, and was the last living former U.S. senator born in the 1910s.

Gelindo "Lindy" Infante (March 27, 1940 – October 8, 2015) was an American football player and coach, who became an offensive coordinator and head coach in both the National Football League (NFL) and the United States Football League (USFL). Infante played college football for the University of Florida, and later served as the head coach of the Jacksonville Bulls of the USFL, and the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts of the NFL.

Wendell Hampton Ford (September 8, 1924 – January 22, 2015) was an American politician from Kentucky. He served for twenty-four years in the U.S. Senate and was the 53rd Governor of Kentucky. He was the first person to be successively elected lieutenant governor, governor, and United States senator in Kentucky history. He was the Senate Democratic whip from 1991 to 1999, and was considered the leader of the state's Democratic Party from his election as governor in 1971 until he retired from the Senate in 1999. At the time of his retirement he was the longest-serving senator in Kentucky's history, a mark which was then surpassed by Mitch McConnell in 2009. He is the most recent Democrat to have served as a Senator from the state of Kentucky.
Born in Daviess County, Kentucky, Ford attended the University of Kentucky, but his studies were interrupted by his service in World War II. After the war, he graduated from the Maryland School of Insurance and returned to Kentucky to help his father with the family insurance business. He also continued his military service in the Kentucky Army National Guard. He worked on the gubernatorial campaign of Bert T. Combs in 1959 and became Combs' executive assistant when Combs was elected governor. Encouraged to run for the Kentucky Senate by Combs' ally and successor, Ned Breathitt, Ford won the seat and served one four-year term before running for lieutenant governor in 1967. He was elected on a split ticket with Republican Louie B. Nunn. Four years later, Ford defeated Combs in an upset in the Democratic primary en route to the governorship.
As governor, Ford made the government more efficient by reorganizing and consolidating some departments in the executive branch. He raised revenue for the state through a severance tax on coal and enacted reforms to the educational system. He purged most of the Republicans from statewide office, including helping Walter Dee Huddleston win the Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Republican stalwart John Sherman Cooper. In 1974, Ford himself ousted the other incumbent senator, Republican Marlow Cook. Following the rapid rise of Ford and many of his political allies, he and his lieutenant governor, Julian Carroll, were investigated on charges of political corruption, but a grand jury refused to indict them. As a senator, Ford was a staunch defender of Kentucky's tobacco industry. He also formed the Senate National Guard Caucus with Missouri senator Kit Bond. Chosen as Democratic party whip in 1991, Ford considered running for floor leader in 1994 before throwing his support to Connecticut's Christopher Dodd. He retired from the Senate in 1999 and returned to Owensboro, where he taught politics to youth at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History.

Jane Wilson (1924–2015) was an American painter associated with both landscape painting and expressionism. She lived and worked in New York City and Water Mill, New York.

Gretchen Marie Quie (née Hansen; August 4, 1927 – December 13, 2015) was an American artist, painter, potter, writer, and advocate for the arts. Quie served as the First Lady of Minnesota from 1979 until 1983 during the administration of her husband, Governor Al Quie. As First Lady, Quie established the State Ceremonial Building Council to oversee the restoration of the Minnesota Governor's Residence. She also opened the Governor's Mansion to the general public through programs including, "Night at the Mansion," which chose Minnesotans through a lottery to spend the night at the residence. Al and Gretchen Quie invited a family of Vietnamese refugees to live at the Governor's Residence's renovated carriage house to encourage Minnesotans to sponsor more refugees.Her official manuscripts are housed in the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Bjørg Løhner Øien (10 May 1928 – 20 February 2015) was a Norwegian figure skater. She competed at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. She was Norwegian champion in figure skating in 1952.

Tore Bernitz Pedersen (26 January 1935 - 17 April 2015) was a Norwegian illustrator and comics artist. He was born in Oslo and was educated at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry and the Regent Street Polytechnic Art School in London. He created the comics strip Doktor Fantastisk, in cooperation with Axel Jensen, Roar Høiby and Terje Brofos, which was published in the newspaper Dagbladet, and he has been illustrator for the newspapers Aftenposten and Fredriksstad Blad. Among his book illustrations are Alf Prøysen's songbook Fra Hompetitten til bakvendtland, historical books by Georg Apenes, and Olav Angell's books about the city of Oslo.

María de los Ángeles López Segovia OAXS MML (20 March 1937 – 19 August 2015), better known as Lina Morgan, was a Spanish film, theater, radio, revue and television actress and vedette. Throughout her career, she stood out for playing mostly comic roles and those related to popular genres such as the Spanish revue and musical comedy. She was also the theater impresario and owner of the Teatro La Latina in Madrid.
Morgan received many accolades throughout her career in film, stage and television spanning near six decades. She was also the recipient of many honors. The Government of Spain honored her with the Gold Medal of Merit in Labour in 1984, the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1999 and with the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise in 2015 posthumously.

Finn Backer (6 July 1927 – 9 June 2015) was a Norwegian judge.
He was born in Oslo. He worked in the Ministry of Justice and the Police, becoming assistant secretary in 1958. He was a presiding judge in Eidsivating Court of Appeal from 1973, and was then a Supreme Court Justice from 1985 to 1997.

Elisabeth Elliot (née Howard; December 21, 1926 – June 15, 2015) was a Christian missionary, author, and speaker. Her first husband, Jim Elliot, was killed in 1956 while attempting to make missionary contact with the Auca people (now known as Huaorani; also rendered as Waorani or Waodani) of eastern Ecuador. She later spent two years as a missionary to the tribe members who killed her husband. Returning to the United States after many years in South America, she became widely known as the author of over twenty books and as a speaker. Elliot toured the country, sharing her knowledge and experience, well into her seventies.