B6 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 , 2019
obituaries
BY DÁNICA COTOWalter Mercado, a flamboy-
ant astrologer and television
personality whose daily TV ap-
pearances entertained many
across Latin America and the
United States for more than a
decade, died Nov. 2 at a hospital
in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He
was 87 or 88, according to con-
flicting news reports and public
records.
The cause was kidney failure,
said Sofía Luquis, a spokes-
woman at Auxilio Mutuo Hospi-
tal. He had been living in the
suburb of Cupey and was hospi-
talized several days before his
death.
Mr. Mercado was born in
Ponce, one of Puerto Rico’s larg-
est cities. He worked briefly for
TV stations based in the U.S.
territory before moving to
South Florida. There, he gained
fame for his daily horoscope
segment on Spanish-language
television, delivered in dramat-
ic fashion with an exaggerated
trilling of the “r” sound.
He favored long and colorful
brocades and huge gemstone
rings, which he flashed while
pointing to viewers. His catch
phrase to his audience: “Above
all, lots and lots of love.”
Mr. Mercado never publicly
stated his sexuality, but he was
an icon in the gay community as
someone who challenged the
conservative television culture
in Latin America. “He endows
the drag queen with papal au-
thority,” Diana Taylor, a New
York University professor of
performance studies and Span-
ish, wrote in a 2003 critique.
Alex Fumero, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who has spent
two years working on a docu-
mentary about Mr. Mercado,
said the astrologer was an un-
likely icon in the Latino com-
munity.
“This is a culture that’s been
dominated by machismo and
homophobia for a very longtime. For someone who so bra-
zenly played with gender and
sexuality and always remained
something of a mystery... he
was really brave,” Fumero said
in a phone interview.
However, Mr. Mercado also
faced some legal battles.
In 1998, he got in trouble forendorsing alleged health and
beauty products and was
named in a class-action lawsuit
that accused him of misleading
people into buying beads with
supposed special powers. The
president of the jewelry com-
pany, Unique Gems Interna-
tional, was later sentenced to
14 years in prison for defraud-
ing 16,000 people in a $90 mil-
lion scam.
In October 2010, Mr. Mercado
announced he was changing his
name to Shanti Ananda. That
same year, he stopped shooting
his segment for Univision, the
Spanish-language TV channel.
Months later, he began to deliv-
er daily horoscopes through El
Nuevo Herald newspaper in Mi-
ami.
Mr. Mercado was hospital-
ized in December 2011 in Puerto
Rico following a cold that
turned into pneumonia. His
health condition worsened, and
he was transferred to a hospital
in Ohio. It was later revealed
that he had suffered a heart
attack.
In 2014, he launched the web-
site Passion Latinos, offering
horoscopes, online dating and
an array of products called Cap-
tivating — including fragrances,
candles, soaps and body lotions
aimed at promoting prosperity,
sex, health, peace and love.
— Associated PressWALTER MERCADO
Resplendent Puerto Rican astrologer, icon in gay community
DENNIS M. RIVERA PICHARDO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Walter Mercado, also known as Shanti Ananda, gained fame for his florid daily horoscope segment
from South Florida on Spanish-language television. His catch phrase: “Above all, lots and lots of love.”1990.
Before his retirement, Master
Chief Boesch was honored as
chief SEAL, or bullfrog. The title
marks his time as the longest-
serving SEAL still on active
duty. He remained involved af-
ter he left the Navy, serving on
the board of directors of the
UDT-SEAL Association.
“He was a legend in the SEAL
teams long before ‘Survivor,’ ”
Gonzalez said.
At 72, Master Chief Boesch
was the oldest contestant everFROM NEWS SERVICE
AND STAFF REPORTSRudy Boesch, a tough-as-nails
Navy SEAL who retired as a
master chief petty officer and
became a fan favorite on the
inaugural season of “Survivor,”
died Nov. 1 at a hospice center in
Virginia Beach. He was 91.
His death was confirmed by
Steve Gonzalez, director of oper-
ations for the SEAL Veterans
Foundation. He had Alzheimer’s
disease.
Master Chief Boesch joined
the Navy in 1944 and became
one of the first SEALs in 1962.
He served two combat tours dur-
ing the Vietnam War, received
honors including a Bronze Star
and retired from the Navy in
on the hit CBS reality series,
taking third place on its first
season, known as “Survivor:
Borneo,” in 2000, and becoming
a close ally of winner Richard
Hatch.
He proved so popular as a
no-nonsense but lovable charac-
ter that he was invited back for
the eighth season, “Survivor:
All-Stars,” released in 2004.
Rudolph Ernst Boesch was
born in Rochester, N.Y., on Jan.
20, 1928. His father was a butch-
er, and both of his parents were
Austrian immigrants. He
dropped out of high school at 16
and served in the Merchant Ma-
rine before joining the Navy.
His wife of 53 years, Marjorie
Thomas, died in 2008. They had
three daughters.RUDY BOESCH, 91
Navy SEAL became a fan favorite on first season of ‘Survivor’
PAUL HAWTHORNE/GETTY IMAGESRudy Boesch, who came in
third in the inaugural season of
“Survivor,” was invited back for
the eighth season, “Survivor:
All-Stars,” in 2004.BY HARRISON SMITHMarie Laforêt, an actress and
singer who became one of the
most captivating French per-
formers of the 1960s and ’70s
and who was known for her
piercing eyes, melancholy voice
and freewheeling approach to
fame, died Nov. 2 in Genolier,
Switzerland, 20 miles north of
Geneva. She was 80.
Her family announced the
death but did not give a cause.
In a tweet, French Culture Min-
ister Franck Riesterwrote that
Ms. Laforêt “embodied a form of
total freedom. Freedom in her
artistic choices, freedom in her
life, with love and passion as her
only guides.”
The daughter of a wealthy
industrialist, Ms. Laforêt won a
radio talent contest as a teenag-
er and made her film debut at
age 20, starring opposite Alain
Delon in the seductive 1960
thriller “Purple Noon” (“Plein
Soleil”). Adapted from Patricia
Highsmith’s novel “The Talent-
ed Mr. Ripley” — later turned
into a 1999 Hollywood film of
the same name — “Purple Noon”
became an art-house success in
the United States while launch-
ing Ms. Laforêt to European
stardom.
She went on to appear in 37
feature films, including the 1961
dramas “Saint-Tropez Blues,”
where her performance of the
title song with rock vocalist
Jacques Higelin effectively
launched her singing career,
and “The Girl With the Golden
Eyes,” a Balzac adaptation with
a title that endured for decades
as her nickname.
Ms. Laforêt married the di-
rector of “Golden Eyes,” Jean-
Gabriel Albicocco, and was rap-
turously received on a publicity
tour in the United States, where
Washington Post critic Richard
L. Coe predicted she was “going
to be a major star of French and
international films”: “Her eyes
seem purple, her hair is black,
she is slight and small and she
rather smolders... She is 20
years old but wise as the
sphinx.”
In France, however, she had
more lasting success as a singer,
with hits including “Les Ven-
danges de l’Amour,” “Que Calor
la Vida,” “Viens Viens” and cov-
ers of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in
the Wind,” Simon and Garfun-
kel’s “The Sound of Silence” and
the Rolling Stones’s “Paint It
Black,” retitled “Marie Douceur,
Marie Colère.”
Ms. Laforêt sold more than
35 million records and helped
broaden the sound of 1960s
French pop, at a time when the
bubble gum rock of young “yé-
yé” singers ruled the charts. She
recorded versions of “House of
the Rising Sun” and “Go Tell It
on the Mountain”; sang about
the breakup of the Beatles in “Il
a Neigé sur Yesterday”; and in-
troduced many of her legions offans to folk music from Latin
America and Eastern Europe.
Yet even as she played to
sold-out crowds at the Olympia
and Bobino concert halls in
Paris, she was unsatisfied with
her musical success. “I don’t
have a voice, I have a timbre,”
she once declared. “I’m
ashamed of doing what I do:
interpreting pop songs in a su-
perficial way.”
She stopped touring and in
1978, moved to Switzerland,
where she lived for much of the
next four decades, jumping
from writing books to running
an art gallery to performing on
the stage and screen — notably
portraying another larger-than-
life figure, opera singer Maria
Callas, in productions of Ter-
rence McNally’s Tony-winning
play “Master Class.”
Ms. Laforêt was born Maïtena
Doumenach in the seaside town
of Soulac-sur-Mer, France, onOct. 5, 1939. At age 38, she
revealed that she had been
raped by a neighbor when she
was 3.
“For decades, it was impossi-
ble to talk about it,” she said,
according to French radio
broadcaster RFI. “Had I not
been raped, I would never have
exposed myself in that way to
the public. It went against my
natural shyness. I chose a career
that would provide an outlet for
my feelings.”
Her family settled in Paris
after World War II, and Ms.
Laforêt took acting lessons
from filmmaker Raymond Rou-
leau before being cast in a new
project by noted director Louis
Malle. His film was abandoned,
however, and instead she ap-
peared in “Purple Noon,” direct-
ed by René Clément and filmed
on the Italian island of Ischia.
Ms. Laforêt played Marge, a
charming young woman — later
portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow
in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” —
who becomes an obsession of
Tom Ripley (Delon), who plots
to kill her wealthy boyfriend
(Maurice Ronet).
She later worked with direc-
tors including Claude Chabrol
and Fernando Solanas, and was
featured several times along-
side Jean-Paul Belmondo, nota-
bly in Georges Lautner’s crime
film “Cop or Hood” (1979). Ms.
Laforêt was also nominated for
a César Award, the French
equivalent of an Oscar, for her
supporting role in a 1987 war
comedy with a ribald, unprint-
able title.
She was married five times,
including to Judas Azuelos,
with whom she had two chil-
dren, and to Alain Kahn-Sriber,
with whom she had a daughter.
Another daughter, Lisa Azuelos,
is a filmmaker.
“My career has been made up
of odds and ends,” Ms. Laforêt
once said, “but my life has been
full from beginning to end.”
[email protected]MARIE LAFORÊT, 80
French singer, actress with ‘golden eyes’ and free-spirited life
PHOTOS BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
French actress Marie Laforêt with actor Jean-Paul Belmondo in 1984, while filming in Paris. She
appeared in several feature films but had more lasting success as a singer.Marie Laforêt in 1972. She sang
folk music from Latin America
and Eastern Europe.IN MEMORIAM
GEORGE CLIFFORD JONES
11/5/1927- 7/20/2018
You are still loved beyond words
and sorely missed beyond measure
Happy Birthday
Your loving FamilyJONES
DEATH NOTICE
LOUISE MCALISTER BLAUVELT
On Saturday, November 2, 2019, Louise McAl-
ister Blauvelt, age 84, beloved wife of the
late Peter DeWitt Blauvelt; devoted mother
of Michael Field Blauvelt and Rev. Dr. Laura
Blauvelt and families and the late Jeffrey DeWitt
Blauvelt, daughter in law Kim Byorick Blauvelt.
Memorial Service will be held Wednesday,
November 6, 2019 at 11 a.m. at Potomac U.M.
Church, 9908 South Glen Road, Potomac, MD.- Private Inurnment.Arrangements made
by: Burrier-Queen Funeral Home & Crematory,
PA online condolences to
http://www.burrier-queen.com
BLAUVELT
WILLIAM C. BROWN
On Thursday, October 24, 2019. He was pre-
ceded in death by his wife, Helen Brown in- He is survived by three daughters, Silvia,
Stephanie and Shirley; six grandchildren; four
great- grandchildren; one brother; thee sisters-
in-law; three god-children; a loved companion
and a host of other relatives and friends. The
family will receive friends Thursday, November
7 from 5 to 8 p.m. at Fort Lincoln Funeral
Home, 3401 Bladensburg Rd, Brentwood, MD
and Friday,November 8 at St.Anthony of Padua
Catholic Church, 1029 Monroe St., NE from 9
a.m. until time of Mass of Christian Burial 10
a.m. Interment Fort Lincoln Cemetery.
http://www.fort-lincoln.com
BROWN
WILLIAM E. CURTIS
Book #1470700 passed on October
29, 2019. Brother William became
an Iron Worker member in June- Brother Curtis will be greatly
missed by all.
CURTIS
CAROL BAER FISCHER
A lifelong Washingtonian 99, passed away on
November 1, 2019 at her home in Washington,
DC. She was born on June 28, 1920 to David
Alphonse and Ruth Israel Baer.
Growing up in Washington, DC, she graduat-
ed from Western High School in 1937. After
high school she attended Wellesley College in
Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she earned a
degree in Political Science.
Upon graduation, Carol married S. Greenhoot
Fischer in 1941 in Washington, DC. They were
happily married for 55 years. Carol worked in
her husband’s business managing two office
buildings, in addition to raising three children.
She enjoyed gardening, traveling and reading.
Carol is survived by her children; Deane Edel-
man of Washington, DC, Steven Fischer and
his wife, Billie, of Santa Monica, CA and Libby
Hellmann of Chicago, Il. She leaves six grand-
children and eight great-grandchildren and her
sister, Barbara Ann Luchs.
She was preceded in death by her husband
and her brother, Richard Barr of New York City.
A remembrance will take place at Gawler’s
Funeral Home, 5130 Wisconsin Ave NW, Wash-
ington, DC 20016 at 11 a.m. on November 4,
2019.
Donations in her memory may be made to Save
the Children or to The Epilepsy Foundation of
America.FISCHER
JANICE LYNN GANN (Age 73)
Of Hagerstown, MD, passed away on Sunday,
November 3, 2019. She was born on January
28, 1946 to the late Charles Alfred Baker and
Amelia Ulrich Baker. Janice graduated from
University of Maryland College Park with High
Honors. She is survived by her husband of
49 years, James Edward Gann, her sons, Rev.
Jaim Edward Gann and his wife, Janine and
Jody Lyndon Gann, and her grandchildren,
David and Sarah Gann. She was a member
of Concordia Lutheran Church in Hagerstown.
Family and friends are welcomed for a visita-
tion on Wednesday, November 6, 2019 from
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Minnich Funeral Home,
415 East Wilson Blvd. in Hagerstown. A funeral
service will be held on Thursday, November 7,
2019 at 2 p.m. with a viewing an hour prior
at Concordia Lutheran Church, 17906 Garden
Lane in Hagerstown. Interment will take place
on Friday, November 8, 2019 at 12 p.m. at
Fort Lincoln Cemetery, 3401 Bladensburg Road
in Brentwood. In lieu of flowers, memorial
donations may be made to: Concordia Luther-
an Church, 17906 Garden Lane, Hagerstown,
MD 21740. Online condolences may be made
at:
http://www.minnichfh.comGANN
LOUIS ELIJAH AYERS, SR
Entered into eternal rest on Thursday, October
31, 2019. He is survived by his four sons,
Louis Ayers, Jr., Leroy Dock, Donald Ayers and
Ronald Ayers; five daughters, Mary E Ayers,
Michelle Ayers, Mary L Ayers, Cherri Ayers and
Antoinette Ayers; two stepdaughters, Diane
Stubbs and Veronica Stubbs; a host of grand-
children, great-grandchildren, other relatives
and friends. Mr. Ayers may be viewed at
Stewart Funeral Home, 4001 Benning Rd., NE
on Wednesday, November 6 from 10 a.m. until
service at 11 a.m. Interment at Ft. Lincoln
CemeteryAYERS
DEATH NOTICE