[custom_adv] Aretha Franklin "Queen of Soul" Aretha Franklin died in August at 76 after a music career that spanned more than six decades. Her music career skyrocketed in 1967 with the hit song Respect, and she went on to win 18 Grammys and was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. [custom_adv] [custom_adv] Stephen Hawking Famed British physicist Stephen Hawking died in March at age 76 after transforming how we look at the universe, black holes and time itself. While considered the most famous scientist of his time, he was also a prolific author who had a deep desire to explain the origin and expansion of the universe to readers without scientific backgrounds. [custom_adv] John McCain War hero, six-term Republican senator and one-time GOP presidential nominee John McCain passed away in August at 81. McCain spent more than five years as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war after his Navy plane was shot down in 1967. Wounds sustained during the war left him with enduring physical disabilities. [custom_adv] Anthony Bourdain Celebrity chef, author and TV personality Anthony Bourdain took his own life at a hotel in France in June, at age 61. Bourdain first found fame with his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. He went on to write numerous memoirs, cookbooks and travel books. [custom_adv] George H.W. Bush The 41st US president and patriarch of a modern-day political dynasty died in November at 94.A graduate of Yale, George H.W. Bush embarked on a political career that included two terms in Congress, working as a UN ambassador, heading the Republican Party, directing the CIA and serving as 43rd vice president under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989. Bush was president from 1989 to 1993. [custom_adv] Burt Reynolds Actor Burt Reynolds -- best known for his signature mustache and unmistakable laugh -- died in September at 82. His roles in Smokey and the Bandit, Deliverance and The Cannonball Run made him a household name. He was Hollywood's top-grossing star each year from 1978 through 1982, and gained a reputation as a beefcake after posing naked for Cosmopolitan magazine in 1972.
