DIED
George Rosenkranz,
a chemist who
helped create the
birth control pill, on
June 23 at 102.
Dave Bartholomew,
a trumpeter,
producer and
composer known
for his hits with Fats
Domino, on June
at 100.
CHOSEN
Italy, as the host of
the 2026 Winter
Olympics, by the
International Olympic
Committee on
June 24. Hosting
duties will be split
between Milan
and the Cortina
d’Ampezzo ski resort.
DEMANDED
The resignation
of Czech Prime
Minister Andrej
Babis, by an
estimated 250,
people who rallied in
Prague on June 23.
KILLED
The chief of staff
of the Ethiopian
army and three
other officials,
in an attempted
June 22 coup. The
general accused of
organizing it was
killed on June 24.
APPROVED
Vyleesi, a drug to
treat low sex drive
in women, by the
U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, on
June 21. It is the
second drug of its
kind to be approved.
ASSEMBLED
Thousands of
Ukrainians, including
politicians, in the
country’s biggest-
ever gay-pride
parade, on June 23.
ESCAPED
Italian mafia boss
Rocco Morabito, from
a prison in Uruguay,
officials in the
country said June 24.
Krantz, seen by her swimming pool in 1986, got her start in
journalism before the novel Scruples shifted her careerJUDiTh KranTz WroTe JUicy cinDerella STorieS in Which
a poor, plucky girl possessed of otherworldly beauty—and per-
haps even a royal title—could, through hard work, climb to the top
of her chosen world, acquiring a closet full of clothes and signifi-
cant sexual satisfaction along the way. I swiped Krantz’s Princess
Daisy off my mother’s bookshelf (probably when I was way too
young for it) and fell into the world of Daisy, born Russian roy-
alty and consigned to poverty through the machinations of an evil
stepbrother. She talks her way into an advertising job and eventu-
ally makes it to the top of a perfume-and- cosmetics empire.
The ladies crafted by Krantz, who died on June 22 at 91, were
winners. Whether they flew planes or ran magazines or ran Bev-
erly Hills boutiques, they did it better than anyone else, and were
rewarded with jewels, mansions, designer wardrobes and love.
Her stories were lavished with name brands, laced with exclu-
sive locales, studded with... well, studs. If the critics reviled her
as much as readers loved her, it bothered her not at all. “It’s not
Dostoyevsky,” she told the Washington Post. “It’s not going to tax
your mental capacities.”
Maybe not. But it certainly fired my imagination, and those
of many other readers. In her characters, we could see ourselves,
only amplified. And we could aspire to be—or to create on the
page—a woman as strong and smart and sexy and confident as
one of Judith Krantz’s world-beating heroines.
Weiner is the best-selling author of the new novel Mrs. EverythingDIED
Judith Krantz
Writer of latter-day fairy tales
By Jennifer WeinerMilestones
DIED
John Shearer
Lens on life
John Shearer capTUreD
on camera iconic American
moments ranging from
John-John’s salute of John
F. Kennedy’s casket to
Muhammad Ali’s 1971 fight
with Joe Frazier. But his
favorite project, according
to his wife Marianne, was a
story about the South Bronx
gang known as the Reapers,
which ran in LIFE magazine
in 1972. Shearer lived with
the gang’s leader for weeks,
sleeping on his couch and
taking pictures at all hours.
This willingness to put
himself into the story was a
hallmark of the way Shearer,
who died at 72 on June 22,
brought life to his work. He
became one of the young-
est staff photographers at
a major publication when
Look magazine hired him at
age 17, and became the sec-
ond African-American pho-
tographer at LIFE. Through-
out, he was committed to
telling stories through his
photos. “His photographs
really capture the soul of an
individual,” Marianne says,
“and where they are in the
world.”
—abigail abramS