2001 deaths

John Guedel, (October 9, 1913 in Portland, Indiana – December 14, 2001 in Los Angeles, California) was a radio and television producer who co-created and produced Art Linkletter's and Groucho Marx's most important and successful broadcast properties, including You Bet Your Life, House Party and People Are Funny. He also created The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and is sometimes credited with the first singing radio commercial in 1937. He was a producer for The Charlotte Greenwood Show on radio.Earlier in his career, he wrote for Hal Roach Studios, including work on the Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang series. In the 1946 film People Are Funny, Guedel was portrayed by actor Phillip Reed.
One of his less successful creations was a daytime soap opera, For Better or Worse, for which he also served as executive producer. It preceded his House Party show during 1959-1960 but lasted only one season.

Elizabeth Wason (March 6, 1912 – February 13, 2001) was an American writer and broadcast journalist; a pioneer, with such others as Mary Marvin Breckinridge and Sigrid Schultz, of female journalism in the United States. She worked for and with Edward R. Murrow during World War II, although despite her significant contributions she, along with a handful of other journalists closely associated with Murrow, were rarely recognized in the famed group of war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys. She also wrote numerous books on food and cooking from the 1940s through 1981.

Wilfred Otto "Gus" Doerner (February 27, 1922 – December 10, 2001) was an American professional basketball player for the Fort Wayne Pistons and Indianapolis Kautskys of the National Basketball League (NBL). He won two championships with the Pistons and one with the Kautskys, although he is best known for his career at Evansville College.A native of Evansville, Indiana, Doerner attended Mackey High School and was a stand-out basketball player. In three years on the team, he earned all-county and all-sectional accolades twice apiece, and in his senior year was named a team captain. When he graduated in 1938, he decided to stay close to home and attend Evansville College (now known as the University of Evansville). He played on the Purple Aces basketball team for all four years, lettering each season.Doerner was a 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) forward and had a breakout senior season in 1941–42. That year, he recorded the third-highest scoring average in the nation and led Indiana collegians in scoring for the second time. He guided Evansville to the 1942 NAIA Division I men's basketball tournament where they would lose in the second round. He was named to the all-tournament team and was also selected as the NAIA Tournament MVP. Doerner became the first Evansville player to receive All-America status when he was honored as a consensus Second Team All-American selection.
After college he played in the NBL, the only viable professional basketball league in the United States at the time. From 1942 to 1946, Doerner played on the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and won two league championships. He then played for the Indianapolis Kautskys and won one more NBL championship.In his later life he was a basketball coach at Fort Branch High School in Fort Branch, Indiana and won one sectional title. Doerner was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame for his success at the high school, college and professional levels of basketball, all within the state of Indiana.

Jack Frasure Hyles (September 25, 1926 – February 6, 2001) was a leading figure in the Independent Baptist movement, having pastored the First Baptist Church of Hammond in Hammond, Indiana, from August 1959 until his death. He was well known for being an innovator of the church bus ministry that brought thousands of people each week from surrounding towns to Hammond for services. Hyles built First Baptist up from fewer than a thousand members to a membership of 100,000. In 1993 and again in 1994, it was reported that 20,000 people attended First Baptist every Sunday, making it the most attended Baptist church in the United States. In 2001, at the time of Hyles's death, 20,000 people were attending church services and Sunday school each week.

Joseph C. Winkler (March 9, 1922 – March 21, 2001) was an American football center who played one season with the Cleveland Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Purdue University and attended Catholic Central High School in Hammond, Indiana.

Cliff Raven Ingram (August 24, 1932 – November 28, 2001) was one of a handful of tattoo artists (along with Sailor Jerry Collins and Don Ed Hardy) who pioneered the adoption of the Japanese tattoo aesthetic in the United States. Born in Indiana as "Clifford H. Ingram," Cliff later shortened his first name and adopted his business name of "Raven" as his legal middle name, largely to facilitate mail delivery.

Sister Edith Pfau, S.P., (1915–2001) was an American painter, sculptor, and art educator known for her religious works and commissions.
Born Alberta Henrietta Pfau in Jasper, Indiana, she began drawing at a very early age. Later in her life she recalled, "I always was attracted to faces. I find faces everywhere, even in scribbles on the wall."Pfau entered the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in 1933 at the age of 18, taking the religious name Sister Edith. Her main ministry as a Sister was teaching art and English in Indiana, Illinois, Washington, D.C., California and Taiwan. Pfau's education ministry included eleven years teaching at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, eleven years at Immaculata Junior College in Washington, D.C., and ten years at Providence University in Shalu, Taichung, Taiwan.

Cal Collins (May 5, 1933 – August 27, 2001) was an American jazz guitarist.
Born in Medora, Indiana, United States, Collins first played the mandolin professionally as a bluegrass musician in the early 1950s. After service in the Army, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and switched to jazz guitar after hearing swing guitarists Charlie Christian, Irving Ashby, and Oscar Moore. He played in Cincinnati for twenty years.Benny Goodman hired him in 1976 at the age of 43. He spent three years with the Goodman orchestra and then three years making albums for Concord Jazz. As a leader and sideman, he worked with Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Rosemary Clooney, Ross Tompkins, Woody Herman, John Bunch, and Marshal Royal.In the early 1980s, Collins returned to Cincinnati and slowed down his career. He joined the Masters of the Steel String Guitar Tour in 1993 with Jerry Douglas and Doc Watson and recorded his last album in 1998. In 2001, he died of liver failure.

John Frederick "Jake" Townsend Sr. (September 20, 1916 – December 4, 2001) was an American basketball forward and center. He was an All-Big Ten player for the University of Michigan from 1935 to 1938. In 1938, he was named an All-American. He later played professional basketball for the Indianapolis Kautskys, Oshkosh All-Stars and Rochester Royals.

J. J. Johnson (January 22, 1924 – February 4, 2001), born James Louis Johnson and also known as Jay Jay Johnson, was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.
Johnson was one of the earliest trombonists to embrace bebop.