Obituaries in the news

Obituaries in the news

Stephen Gately

PORT D’ANDRATX, Mallorca (AP) — Stephen Gately, a singer with the Irish boy band Boyzone who made headlines when he came out as gay a decade ago, died Saturday. He was 33.

Gately died while visiting the island of Mallorca in Spain, the band said in a brief statement. The cause of death was not immediately clear.

Gerald Kean, a Gately family friend in Ireland, said Sunday the singer died of natural causes, without identifying them. Kean said an autopsy was expected to be conducted Tuesday.

Gately and his partner Andrew Cowles, who were wed in a civil union in 2006, were in Mallorca together, the band’s statement said.

Boyzone was a U.K. hitmaker in the 1990s and announced a comeback tour at the end of last year. Gately also had released several solo singles and appeared in stage musicals, including “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

He revealed his sexual orientation to a British newspaper in 1999.

Boyzone was one of the biggest acts to come out of Ireland in the 1990s.

Boyzone sold millions of records and topped the British charts with six No. 1 singles during the 1990s, including “All That I Need” and a cover of the Bee Gees’ “Words.”

The group was formed in 1993 by impresario Louis Walsh, who placed an ad in the press announcing auditions for Ireland’s first boy band.

Donna Mae Mims

BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Donna Mae Mims, the first woman to win a Sports Car Club of America national championship in 1963, died Tuesday. She was 82.

Mims died of complications following a stroke, said Aaron Beinhauer, director of Beinhauer Family Services, which is handling the arrangements.

Known as the “Pink Lady” because of her preferred color for cars, Mims worked for Yenko Chevrolet and the company’s sports car division and started racing in 1958, according to Beinhauer Family Services. Mims’ association with the car company led her to race cars, including the Camaro, Austin Healey, MG, Corvette and Corvairs.

Mims participated in the original Cannonball Run, where her 1968 Cadillac limousine was wrecked with her teammate behind the wheel. She also became known as “Think Pink,” ”Donna Amazing” and “Free Maui.”

Lionel Pincus

NEW YORK (AP) — Lionel Pincus, founder and chairman of New York-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus, has died. He was 78.

Pincus died around midnight Saturday in his Manhattan home after a long illness, according to a spokesman for his longtime partner, Princess Firyal of Jordan.

Pincus founded Warburg Pincus in 1966. Since then the firm has invested more than $29 billion in more than 600 companies.

It holds stakes in a variety of companies including Fidelity National Information Services Inc., which processes financial transactions; Nuance Communications Inc., which makes speech recognition software, educational company Bridgepoint Education Inc., and drug developer Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Before founding Warburg Pincus, he was a partner of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. He was also a founding director of the National Venture Capital Association and is Chair Emeritus of the Trustees of Columbia University and a member of the Columbia Business School Board of Overseers.

He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and held an M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Warburg Pincus Co-Presidents Charles R. Kaye and Joseph P. Landy said in a statement Sunday that Lionel Pincus was a committed steward to the firm’s success.