2015 deaths

Stanley Holroyd "Stan" Chambers (August 11, 1923 – February 13, 2015) was an American television reporter who worked for KTLA in Los Angeles from 1947 to 2010.Chambers was born in Los Angeles. His career began shortly after KTLA became the first commercially licensed TV station in the western United States. His April 1949 on-scene 27½-hour report of the unsuccessful attempt to rescue Kathy Fiscus from an abandoned well in San Marino, California, prompted the sale of hundreds of TV sets in the Los Angeles area. His report has been recognized as the first live coverage of a breaking news story.In 1952, Chambers was involved in the first live telecast of an atomic bomb test at the Nevada Test Site. Among other stories he covered were the 1961 Bel Air fires, the 1963 Baldwin Hills Reservoir dam break, the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge earthquakes, the 1963 kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr., the 1965 Watts Riots, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the Tate-LaBianca murders by the Manson family, and the Hillside Strangler. Chambers broke the story on the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Department officers.Chambers earned several Emmy Awards, Golden Mike Awards, LA City and County Proclamations, an LA Press Club Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His grandson, Jaime Chambers, became a reporter at KTLA in 2003, and now works at KSWB-TV (Fox-5) in San Diego.

David Vreeland Kenyon (September 10, 1930 – March 31, 2015) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Stella Rush (April 30, 1925 – July 25, 2015), also known by her pen name Sten Russell, was an American journalist and LGBT rights activist. She was a regular reporter for the gay rights magazine ONE (1954–1961) and the lesbian rights magazine The Ladder (1957–1968).

Jean Darling (born Dorothy Jean LeVake; August 23, 1922 – September 4, 2015) was an American child actress who was a regular in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1927–29. Prior to her death, she was one of four surviving cast members from the silent era cast of Our Gang (Lassie Lou Ahern, Mildred Kornman and Dorothy Morrison being the others). At the time of her death in 2015, Darling was, along with Baby Peggy, one of the last surviving actors who worked in the silent film era.

Vera Baker Williams (January 28, 1927 – October 16, 2015) was an American children's writer and illustrator. Her best known work, A Chair for My Mother, has won multiple awards and was featured on the children's television show Reading Rainbow.For her lifetime contribution as a children's illustrator she was U.S. nominee in 2004 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. Additionally, she was awarded the 2009 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature.

Alexa Suelzer (June 19, 1918 – June 26, 2015) was an American author, educator and theologian known for her Old Testament criticism. A Roman Catholic religious sister, she was a member of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. One of her most cited works is her essay "Modern Old Testament Criticism" in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. In addition to her writing, she taught for twenty years at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Ricardo García Sainz Lavista (9 June 1930 – 23 August 2015) was a Mexican politician and administrator. He was director of the Mexican Social Security Institute between 1982 and 1991. He served in the Chamber of Deputies for the Party of the Democratic Revolution between 1997 and 2000 as part of the LVII Legislature of the Mexican Congress.

Osamu Hayaishi MJA (早石 修, Hayaishi Osamu, January 8, 1920 – December 17, 2015), was a Japanese biochemist, physiologist, and military physician. He discovered Oxygenases at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health in 1955.Citing his "outstanding and pioneering contributions to biomedical sciences and enzymology," the Wolf Foundation awarded Hayaishi the 1986 Wolf Prize in Medicine "for his discovery of the oxygenase enzymes and elucidation of their structure and biological importance".Hayaishi was President of International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from 1973 to 1976.

Jayne Meadows (born Jane Cotter; September 27, 1919 – April 26, 2015) was an American stage, film and television actress, as well as an author and lecturer. She was nominated for three Emmy Awards during her career and was the elder sister of actress and memoirist Audrey Meadows as well as the wife of original Tonight Show host Steve Allen.

Betsy Drake (September 11, 1923 – October 27, 2015) was an American actress, writer and psychotherapist. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant.