Other Notable Deaths

The Baltimore Sun

ANTONIO CARLOS PEIXOTO DE MAGALHAES, 79 Brazilian politician

Sen. Antonio Carlos Peixoto de Magalhaes, one of Brazil's most influential politicians who held onto power as the country came under a military dictatorship and returned to democracy, died Friday of multiple organ failure after being hospitalized last week, the Sao Paulo Heart Institute said.

Mr. Magalhaes had a devoted following in his home state of Bahia, where he served three terms as governor and represented the state for three terms in the Senate. But his harsh manner of dealing with opponents under the 1964-1985 dictatorship and mastery of backroom deal-making also earned him enemies, as well as the nickname "Toninho Malvaldeza," or Tony Evil.

SEKOU SUNDIATA, 58 Grammy-nominated poet

Sekou Sundiata, a Grammy-nominated poet whose work blurred the barriers between music, theater and literature, died Wednesday of heart failure at Westchester Medical Center, said family spokeswoman April Silver.

Mr. Sundiata performed his work on HBO's DEF Poetry Jam and in a national tour with singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, who says on her Web site that the writer taught her "everything I know about poetry." His first recording, The Blue Oneness of Dreams, earned a Grammy nomination.

More recently, Mr. Sundiata had performed around the country with the one-man theatrical piece blessing the boats, which detailed his battle with kidney failure.

ALANAH WOODY, 51 Anthropologist, archaeologist

Alanah Woody, who helped lead efforts to protect American Indian petroglyphs as the executive director of the Nevada Rock Art Foundation, died of heart failure Thursday.

Ms. Woody taught anthropology and archaeology at the University of Nevada, Reno and managed the anthropology collections at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City.

In May, Ms. Woody received a Nevada Historic Preservation Award for her work in preserving the state's ancient heritage. She had served as a witness in the past for the U.S. attorney's office prosecuting those who stole or damaged carvings and drawings on rocks left by Indians thousands of years ago.

An article in Smithsonian magazine in 2005 credited Ms. Woody with mobilizing a "small army of volunteers to educate the public, monitor sites and painstakingly record the state's vast collection of rock art, boulder by boulder."

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