17
JuaniTa abernaThy
used to say she’d known
me since I was a little boy,
before I got “controversial
and famous.” I joined the
Southern Christian Lead-
ership Conference when I
was 13, shortly after Mar-
tin Luther King Jr. was
killed. Ralph Abernathy
succeeded him as presi-
dent, and Juanita, who
died on Sept. 12 at 88, was
its First Lady.
When Dr. King was
new in Montgomery,
Ala., Juanita had become
the support system for
the King family. When
Dr. King’s house was
bombed after the bus boy-
cott, the Abernathy house
was bombed too. Juanita
was the backbone of that
family, and that family was
the backbone of the civil
rights movement. She was
at the marches; she was
at the rallies; she spoke to
women in the churches
about what needed to be
done. Unlike her husband
and Dr. King, she didn’t get
the credit she deserved,
but she was a pivotal part
of the movement.
Sharpton is host of PoliticsNation
and president of the National
Action Networkric ocasek didn’T look or sound much like The
classic conception of a rock star. He was spindly, with
a lilting gait and deep-set eyes; he sang in a plaintive,
reedy voice. But the songwriter and lead singer of the
Cars, who died on Sept. 15 at 75, didn’t particularly care
for conventions. Indeed, he spent his career tweaking
and then reinventing them.
The Cars, formed by Ocasek and Benjamin Orr, broke
out of Boston’s music scene in the late 1970s and helped
define a movement that would become known as new
wave, integrating rock’s pugnacious past with its syn-
thetic future. Songs like “Just What I Needed,” “Drive”
and “Let’s Go” united fans of punk, college rock and
mainstream pop alike. As the band receded from promi-
nence, Ocasek shepherded a new generation of rockers to
the fore by producing artists like Weezer, Nada Surf and
No Doubt. In 2018, he and the Cars were inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ocasek might not have
been what was expected—but time and time again, he
was just what was needed. —andrew r. chowDIED
Ric Ocasek
Rock originalMilestonesDIED
Cokie Roberts
The voice of D.C.
By Walter Isaacson
GrowinG up in boTh wash-
ington, D.C., and New Orleans,
Cokie Roberts—who died on
Sept. 17 at 75—developed a
love for politics, a wry humor
about its lovable rogues and a
reverence for its institutions.
She was born Mary Martha
Corinne Morrison Claiborne
Boggs; her last three names
connected her to political dy-
nasties that included the first
governor of Louisiana, a New
Orleans mayor and her father,
who was U.S. House majority
leader when she was young.
“Because I spent time in the
Capitol and particularly in
the House of Representatives,
I became deeply committed
to the American system,” she
said. “And as close up and as
personally as I saw it and saw
all of the flaws, I understood
all of the glories of it.”
With her bourbon-cured
drawl and common-sense in-
sights, she was a voice of rea-
son in political journalism for
NPR and ABC. An inspiring
historical storyteller, she wrote
engaging books chronicling the
colorful women who helped
shape America. Most impor-
tant, with her ready laugh
and way of saying “darling”—
which she learned from her
mother, who also served in
Congress—she was simply a
good person, filled with love
for those around her and for
the institutions of her country.Isaacson, a former editor of TIME, was
an intern in the office of majority leader
Hale Boggs, Roberts’ fatherDIED
Juanita
Abernathy
Activist’s activist
By Rev. Al SharptonOcasek, seen here around 1980, also
TOILET: LEON NEAL—GETTY IMAGES; ROBERTS: HEIDI GUTMAN—GETTY IMAGES; OCASEK: LYNN GOLDSMITH—GETTY IMAGES; ABERNATHY—APdabbled in painting, poetry and comedy