1924 births

Donald E. Johnson (June 5, 1924 – August 10, 1999) was an American businessman who served as the Administrator of Veterans Affairs from 1969 to 1974.He died of cancer on August 10, 1999, in Fredericksburg, Virginia at age 75.

Robert Herron (September 23, 1924 – October 10, 2021) was an American stuntman and actor, best known for performing stunts in hundreds of Hollywood films between 1950 and 2011.
Herron was born in Lomita, California in September 1924. He began his career in the early 1950s, appearing in films and television series as an actor and as a stunt performer. His work includes The Ten Commandments (1956), Rio Bravo (1959), Spartacus (1960), The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), The Wild Bunch (1969), Shaft (1971), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Rocky (1976).He died from complications of a fall on October 10, 2021, at the age of 97.

Edith Frances Ruth Bradley Holmes (November 26, 1924 – September 2, 2021) was an American linguist, educator, and polyglot who authored two Cherokee language textbooks. Holmes served on the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education from 1975 to 1985. She taught Russian language at Louisiana State University and Russian and Cherokee language adult education courses in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Wendell Wise Mayes Jr. (March 2, 1924 – September 12, 2021) was an American radio and cable television executive in Austin, Texas, who was known for his leadership roles with the American Diabetes Association and the International Diabetes Federation.
The American Diabetes Association presents the Wendell Mayes Jr. Award for Lifetime Service, its highest award given to non-medical professional volunteers, to honor members for their lifetime achievement. He was the initial recipient of the award in 1986. Mayes was also a longtime supporter of education, earning five college degrees and establishing scholarships and awards at five higher education institutions in Texas.

Ernest C. Wilson Jr. (May 15, 1924 – August 18, 1992) was an American architect and real estate developer based in Newport Beach, California. He designed many office buildings in San Diego and Orange County, as well as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. With partners Robert E. Langdon Jr. and Hans Mumper, he designed the Getty Villa in the Pacific Palisades as well as the Bank of America Building in Beverly Hills. As President of Koll International, he masterplanned and developed many hotels and golf clubs in Baja California, Mexico.

Mary Louise Boehm (July 25, 1924 – November 29, 2002) was an American pianist and painter.
A descendant of Joseph Boehm, a piano-maker active in Vienna during the early 19th century, Mary Louise Boehm was born in Sumner, Iowa, and soon proved to be a child prodigy. She studied with Louis Crowder at Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa) and subsequently with Robert Casadesus and Walter Gieseking.Boehm's repertoire and recorded output was notable for works by American composers such as Amy Beach and Ernest Schelling, who are far from mainstream, even now. She also performed and made premiere recordings of works by several early romantic composers such as John Field, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Johann Peter Pixis, Ignaz Moscheles and Friedrich Kalkbrenner. Her advocacy introduced a generation of music lovers to these neglected composers. She was also interested in performance on period instruments at a time when this was rare.
From the 1960s she began painting, working in oils, watercolor and inks. While on concert tours in South America she became interested in textiles, which led to her involvement with weaving, textile design and the complicated field of dye and color chemistries. Eventually she chose batik as a painterly textile medium. She studied the traditional Indonesian batik techniques and pioneered modern adaptations, and had major shows in the United States.She married the Dutch violinist Kees Kooper with whom she performed regularly. In 2002 she died in Spain. Her sister Pauline Boehm Haga was also a pianist; the Grand Sonata Op. 112 by Moscheles was recorded by the sisters together.

Georges Géret (18 October 1924 – 7 April 1996) was a French film actor. He appeared in over 80 films between 1954 and 1992. He was born in Lyon, France.

Ivan Eugene Bonar (October 31, 1924 – December 8, 1988) was an American character actor whose career in Hollywood, in films and television, spanned four decades, from the mid 1950s into the 1980s.

Byrd Baylor Schweitzer (March 28, 1924 – June 16, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, and author of picture books for children. Four of her books have achieved Caldecott Honor status.

Ruth Kobart (April 24, 1924 – December 14, 2002) was an American performer, whose six-decade career encompassed opera, Broadway musical theatre, regional theatre, films, and television.