Richard Van Akkeren Dieterle, RFD Boys Founder Dead at 71

The bluegrass musician was a staple of entertainment at the Dexter Days summer festival for many years.

Assisted Suicide Advocate Jack Kevorkian of Royal Oak Dies at 83

Longtime resident was a lightning rod for controversy and a familiar face around town.

Assisted suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian of Royal Oak died at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak this morning after being hospitalized with kidney, liver and respiratory problems off and on for several weeks. He was 83. Kevorkian first made headlines for his right-to-die stand in 1990 when he assisted in the death of Janet Adkins, who had Alzheimer’s disease. The former pathologist admitted to assisting in an estimated 130 deaths from 1990-98. More recently, he served eight years of a 10- to 25-year sentence in the 1998 death of Thomas Youk, who suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease. He was released from prison in 2007 and returned to live in an apartment in Royal Oak, where he was frequently seen at his favorite restaurants and shops. …

•  84 Comments
• Photos (1)
• Videos (1)

ecnalubma

5:15 pm on Friday, January 13, 2012

Rants go on and on here. Dr. Death was the wrong guy to follow as the Poster Child for this cause. People want dignity when their life ends, only to find the insurance company standing by the plug ready to pull it. I have seen many times, as recently as this past December, the insurance company wanting to withhold care and having the families told that they need to make sure things are in place …   more ›

Memorial Service to Honor Local Artist

Former Ann Arbor resident Jean Campbell had connections to Dexter and Saline.

A memorial service for local artisan Jean (Fox) Campbell, who died of cancer in January at the age of 80, will be held at 3 p.m. June 12 at the United Methodist Church, 1200 N. Ann Arbor St. in Saline. Campbell has many connections to the Dexter area. A native of Iowa, she grew up in Ann Arbor and had relatives in Dexter, where she and her family and cousin Duane Devlin’s family loved to play softball. “The families would have picnics at a Dexter park and totally dominate the softball diamond with just their families alone,” wrote her daughter Liz Nickell in a tribute. “Young and old alike were invited to play.” After Campbell’s father died of a heart attack when she was 12, her mother took her and her three sisters to live with their …

• Photos (1)

Photo Gallery: 'Field of Honor' Pays Tribute to Michigan's Fallen Troops

The flags and biography tags are on display this weekend at Guardian Angel Cemetery in Oakland Township.

Just inside the iron gates of Guardian Angel Cemetery on Rochester Road in Oakland Township, 245 American flags arranged meticulously in six rows flap in the breeze. Each of the flags represents a Michigan serviceman or woman who died as a result of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and each flagpole bears that man or woman's name, photograph, hometown and a short biography. “We’ve done the flags for the past couple years, and the idea to add the tags with the bios on it was a collective idea," said Guardian Angel Cemetery Director Wendy Mann. “We’ve been working on it for the past couple months. It’s definitely a project.” Mann said the Field of Honor was erected Tuesday near the silo, but heavy rain flooded the area and forced …

•  14 Comments
• Photos (258)