Departures: Former vice president dead at 84

Dick Cheney

A sharp-elbowed political operator who took on leadership roles in the legislative and executive branches of government, Cheney died Nov. 3. He was 84. Cheney began his political life working in the Nixon White House under the aegis of Donald Rumsfeld. He succeeded Rumsfeld as President Ford’s chief of staff and later ran Ford’s unsuccessful 1976 reelection campaign. Cheney then spent a decade in the U.S. House representing Wyoming before becoming secretary of defense during the first Bush administration. As George W. Bush’s surprising vice presidential pick in 2000, Cheney played an influential role in the nation’s response in Afghanistan and Iraq after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Diane Ladd

A screen veteran who played a variety of roles through six decades of work, Ladd died Nov. 3. She was 89. Initially best known for soap opera roles, a pair of films in 1974 helped Ladd break out into more varied work. Director Roman Polanski cast the Mississippi native in Chinatown. The same year, Ladd earned an Oscar nomination for her part in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. She joined the cast of the movie spin-off and CBS sitcom Alice from 1980 to 1981 earning a Golden Globe for best supporting actress. Ladd would earn Academy Award nominations for her supporting roles in Wild at Heart in 1990 and Rambling Rose in 1991.

Victor Conte

A popular funk musician who, decades after his musical career ended, reemerged as the linchpin of one of American sports’ biggest scandals, Conte died Nov. 3. He was 75. In the late 1970s, Conte earned a spot playing bass for the notable Oakland-based funk band Tower of Power. By the mid-1980s, Conte had left music behind to form the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, a sports nutrition business that sold supplements and more. On the side, Conte peddled undetectable performance enhancing drugs to sports luminaries like baseball stars Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds as well as gold-medalist sprinter Marion Jones, leading to an investigation and federal charges in 2004.

June Lockhart

A television, film, and stage actress who outlived most of her colleagues from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Lockhart died Oct. 23. She was 100. Lockhart first appeared on screen in a 1938 rendition of A Christmas Carol. As a teenager she had supporting roles in Sergeant York and Meet Me in St. Louis and won a Tony Award for her stage work in 1948. But it was her natural fit as a motherly character where Lockhart found her most enduring success. Her portrayal of Ruth Martin from 1958 until 1964 on the CBS series Lassie helped define the stereotype of a TV mom. Later she reprised the motherly role in Lost in Space and Petticoat Junction.

Susan Stamberg

Called a founding mother of NPR for her early involvement in public radio, Stamberg died Oct. 16. She was 87. When NPR first hit radio dials in 1970, the Manhattan native had a job there cutting and splicing audio tape. Before long, network executives put Stamberg on the air. She hosted All Things Considered, NPR’s afternoon drive-time news program, for 14 years beginning in 1972, making her the first female host of a national evening news broadcast in the United States. She continued with NPR through 2025 in a variety of roles, including as a guest host and a special correspondent, and made sharing her family’s special cranberry sauce recipe a Thanksgiving tradition on the network.