Edith Shain, the nurse in one of the most memorable photographs from World War Two, died Sunday at the age of 91. The picture, taken in Times Square on V-J Day after the Japanese surrender, appeared in Life magazine. [Life]

Actress Rue McClanahan died early this morning of a massive stroke. She was 76. A veteran television actress, she was best known for the bawdy retiree Blanche Devereaux she played on '80 sitcom The Golden Girls.

Artist Louise Bourgeois died Monday in Manhattan following a heart attack. Her awesome, creepy sculptures—including this spider, Maman, outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain—shot her to fame in her 70s. [LAT; pic via Topyti's Flickr]

Sandy Herold, owner of a 200-lb. chimp that mauled and blinded her friend last year, has died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm. "Her heart, which had been broken so many times before, could take no more," said her lawyer. [AP]

Lena Horne, the jazz singer and Broadway star, died in New York on Sunday. Horne was among the first black singers to cross over to white audiences or lead a white band, and later became a prominent civil rights activist.

Oscar-nominated actress Lynn Redgrave has died at the age of 67. Famed for her title role in 1966's Georgy Girl and 1998's Gods and Monsters, Redgrave died in her Connecticut home on Sunday night.

Dorothy Height, who spent 40 years as president of the National Council for Negro Women, died this morning at the age of 98. She "was arguably the most influential woman at the top levels of civil rights leadership." [WP]

Designing Women actress Dixie Carter has died. She was 70.

Margaret Moth, the CNN camerawoman who barely survived a gunshot wound in Bosnia, is dead.

A moment of silence for Azaria Jagger, whose long-time Flintstone multivitamin pill addiction culminated in a sugary-sweet calcium-fortified death today. In her final moment, she tweeted:

Vice President Joe Biden's mother, Jean Finnegan Biden, has died.

Update 2: OK: Casey Johnson is actually dead. LAPD confirms it. Earlier tonight,TMZ reported embattled socialite Casey Johnson was found dead this morning in L.A of undetermined causes. She was 30.

Former editor and Washington Post ombudsman, Deborah Howell, died when she was struck by a car earlier today in New Zealand. She was 68. Howell was, among other things, a pioneer for women in journalism.

TMZ is reporting that Brittany Murphy, who had long been said to struggle with drugs, died last night after going into cardiac arrest. Paramedics weren't able to revive her. The actress, who launched her career with Clueless, was 32.

Jeanne-Claude, the wife of wrap-happy artist Christo and his artistic collaborator for more than 50 years, died from a brain aneurysm last night at the age of 74. Her favorite project, she said: "the next one." [AP]

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Nan Robertson—author of a book about how terribly the paper treated its female employees—died this week at the age of 83.

Susan Atkins died in prison last night at 61. Atkins was sentenced to death in in 1971 for her role in the Tate/LeBianca murders. She was denied parole for the last time on September 2.

An anti-war voice has fallen silent, for Mary Travers, a founding member of Peter, Paul and Mary, was felled by cancer today. The singer, whose sullen folksy sound many of you will remember from "Blowin' in the Wind," was 72.

Alexis Cohen, who cursed her way into the spotlight after being rejected from American Idol was struck by a car and killed. Police are investigating the case as a homicide. Let's hope Cowell has an alibi.

Actress, model and international sex symbol Farrah Fawcett has succumbed to a 3 year battle with cancer. She was 62 years-old.