Deaths in March - 2026

Author Jeelani Bano died March 1 at the age of 89. Their books include A Hail of Stones, The Alien Home & Other Stories, STORIES FOR CHILDREN BY JEELANI BANO.

Theologian Daniel Migliore died March 2 at the age of 90. His books include Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology, Rachel's Cry: Prayer of Lament and Rebirth of Hope, The Power of God and the gods of Power, and The Lord's Prayer: Perspectives for Reclaiming Christian Prayer.

German author Peter Schneider died March 3 at the age of 85. His books include The Wall Jumper, Berlin Now: The City After the Wall, and The German Comedy: Scenes of Life After the Wall.

Australian sports announcer Dennis Cometti died March 4 at the age of 76. His books include Back to the Place, Back to the Time, The Game: Best AFL Writing, and That's Ambitious: More Classic Commentary.

Community organizer, civil rights activist, and professor Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr died March 5 aged 85. LaFayette's memoir is In peace and freedom : my journey in Selma. He also co-edited and contributed to The Chicago Freedom Movement : Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights activism in the north.

Novelist Antonio Lobo Antunes died March 5 at the age of 83. His books include The Land at the End of the World: A Novel, The Inquisitors' Manual, Fado Alexandrino, and The Natural Order of Things.

Founder of Writers House literary agency, playwright, screenwriter, and drama professor Albert Zuckerman died March 5 aged 94. Zuckerman wrote Writing the blockbuster novel, which Dan Brown used to improve his first novel. Zuckerman was the agent for many authors, including Isabel Allende, Octavia Butler, Ken Follett, Olivia Goldsmith, Amanda Gorman, John Green, Stephen Hawking, Michael Lewis, Sarah J. Maas, Dav Pilkey, Nora Roberts, Robert Shea, Tui Sutherland, F. Paul Wilson, and Robert Anton Wilson.

Priest Father Francisco Fernandez Carvajal died March 6 at the age of 88. His books include Through Wind and Waves: On Being a Spiritual Guide, Children of God: The Life of Spiritual Childhood Preached by Blessed Josemaria Escriva, and Life of Jesus.

Regional historian James Lawton Haney has died. His books include McDowell County, North Carolina, 1843-1943, Stumbling toward Zion: A Mosteller Chronicle, and Glenwood School, 1904-1972: Progressing by Fits and Starts.

Writer Lauren Henderson has died aged 59. She wrote crime novels, other fiction and YA novels as Lauren Henderson, and a number of "bonkbuster" type novels as Rebecca Chance. Her books include a 7 novel series about dominatrix, artist and detective Sam Jones, starting with Dead White Female and Too Many Blondes. Rebecca Chance titles include Divas and Bad Girls.

I've learned this sad news on Facebook but it comes from a former Chair of the Crime Writers' Association, a writer, editor and bookseller, and has also been announced by her ex husband. I will post published obituaries or further information if those become available.

Nobel winning physicist Sir Anthony J. Leggett died March 8 at the age of 87. His books include The Problems of Physics and Quantum Liquids: Bose Condensation and Cooper Pairing in Condensed-Matter Systems.

Actor on stage and screen Jane Lapotaire died on 5 March aged 81. As well as acting in Shakespeare plays and a number of literary adaptations, she wrote three memoirs including Grace and Favour and Time Out of Mind.

Civil rights activist Rev. John M. Perkins died March 13 at the age of 95. His nooks include Let Justice Roll Down, Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development, and With Justice for All: A Strategy for Community Development.

Historian Hermann Kulke died March 10 at the age of 87. His books include A History of India and Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia.

Back after a long hiatus - I was attending to personal matters (you know how it is) and had so little time. Now I hope I have a bit more.

Something that has been keeping me busy is that my animal family has grown to the proportion of a small sanctuary, with currently nine dogs and nine indoor cats. Thank goodness costs are lower here in Mexico.

I may repeat this message (more or less) in some other groups, so if you read it more than once, my apologies! I am going to try to participate in fewer groups this time, here and at Goodreads, because going too big is always my temptation.

Irish folk singer Dolores Keane died on 16 March aged 72.

The author of many spy thrillers and some non fiction, Len Deighton, including Berlin Game and The Ipcress File, died on 15 March aged 97.

>17 elkiedee: I need to read more Deighton! I adored his first novel The IPCRESS File, and need to read more. The mixture of high literary language and postwar UK slang and pop culture is fresh, sometimes startling, and probably now requires annotation. Deighton wants you to know that he can write, a bit of a show-off that way, and you do know it.

Author Brian Doherty died from injuries sustained in a fall on March 13 at the age of 57. His books include Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement, This is Burning Man: The Rise of a New American Underground, and Dirty Pictures: How an Underground Network of Nerds, Feminists, Misfits, Geniuses, Bikers, Potheads, Printers, Intellectuals, and Art School Rebels Revolutionized Art.

Martial arts expert and actor Chuck Norris died March 19 at the age of 86. His books include Against All Odds: My Story and The Justice Riders.

Broadcaster Jenni Murray died today, 20 March, aged 75. She is probably best known as the presenter of the BBC Radio 4 programme Woman's Hour for over 30 years, from 1987 to 2020. She wrote several memoirs including Memoirs of a Not So Dutiful Daughter and My Boy Butch, as well writing/editing books about women in history.

Founder of a cheerleading organization and mentor to the late Charlie Kirk, Jeff Webb died March 19 from injuries sustained in a fall after playing pickleball. He wrote American Restoration: How to Unshackle the Great Middle Class.

Former FBI Director and special counsel Robert S. Mueller died March 20 at the age of 81. He authored The Mueller Report .

Art critic and New Yorker writer Calvin Tomkins passed on March 20 at age 100.

Playwright and television writer Eric Overmyer passed on March 16 at age 74.

Overmyer’s career is instructive. He is a celebrated contemporary playwright. I saw his black comedy In Perpetuity Throughout the Universe many years ago, I forget whether it was in San Francisco or Chicago, and loved it. But even if a dramatist’s plays are performed, which his were and still are, he probably makes almost no money from that.

So Overmyer gravitated to television, where he wrote and produced on excellent series such as St. Elsewhere, The Wire, Homicide: Life on the Street, Treme, and Bosch. It was a real contribution. But one can’t help but wonder if he wouldn’t have preferred to remain immersed in the world of the stage, if that were possible.

French Socialist party politician and former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin died on 22 March aged 88. His published works (books and pamphlets) include Le mal napoléonien and Lionel raconte Jospin.

Nonfiction writer Tracy Kidder died March 24 aged 80. Kidder's work includes the prize-winning Soul of a new machine; Mountains Beyond Mountains about a doctor's work bringing health care throughout Haiti; and Among schoolchildren, about life in a fifth-grade classroom.

Philosopher Michel Hulin died March 11 at the age of 90. His books include La mystique sauvage and La Face cachée du temps : l'imaginaire de l'au-delà.

Sociologist Francine Descarries died March 12 at the age of 84. Her books include Minds of our own inventing feminist scholarship and women's studies in Canada and Quebec, 1966-76, The Women's Movement and its Currents of Thought: A Typological Essay, and L'école rose...et les cols roses : la reproduction de la division sociale des sexes.

Biologist Paul R. Ehrlich died March 13 at the age of 93. His books include The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds, The Population Bomb: Population Control or Race to Oblivion?, and Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect.

>30 varielle: Note that Ehrlich was an entomologist who jumped to the conclusion that population growth in insects predicted how things would go with humans. Yeah, that doesn't translate, and he ended up at eugenics. Not recommended.

Philosopher and social theorist whose works covered communication, rationality, and sociology Jürgen Habermas died March 14 aged 96. Habermas's works included The structural transformation of the public sphere, The Theory of Communicative Action (volume 1), and Between naturalism and religion : philosophical essays.

The renowned Polish novelist Wieslaw Myśliwski passed on March 29 at age 94. Three of his novels have appeared in English translation: The Palace, A Treatise on Shelling Beans, and Stone Upon Stone. I ordered a copy of the latter upon hearing of his death.

Professor of forensic science Dr. Henry C. Lee died March 27 at the age of 87. His books include Cracking Cases: The Science of Solving Crimes, Famous Crimes Revisited, and Cracking More Cases: The Forensic Science of Solving Crimes : the Michael Skakel-Martha Moxley Case, the Jonbenet Ramsey Case and Many More!

Illustrator Michael Hague died March 10 aged 77. Hague's works in include: the story collection Dream Weaver by Jane Yolen; collaborations with his wife, Kathleen Hague, such as Alphabears and Good night, fairies; and classics such as The Velveteen Rabbit and The Hobbit.

Horror writer Thomas Tessier died March 26 aged 78. Tessier's works include the novels The nightwalker and Fogheart, plus stories in such anthologies as Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror and Poe's Children: The New Horror.

Writer, academic, translator and crime fiction reviewer Yvonne M Klein died on 25 March aged 92. She was the editor of Beyond the Home Front: Women's Autobiographical Writing of the Two World Wars. Her translations included The Woman of the Wolf and Other Stories. I met her more than 20 years ago, online, through email discussion groups talking about crime and mystery fiction, and I met up with her at several crime and mystery conventions, and stayed with her for a few days in Westmount, Montreal. For some years she ran a crime fiction review site called Reviewing the Evidence, though sadly the website is no longer active or accessible online.

Children's author and writing teacher Marsha Wilson Chall died March 29 aged 72. Chall's works include Up north at the cabin (illustrated by Steve Johnson), One pup's up (illustrated by Henry Cole), and Bonaparte (illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin).

Editor and publishing executive Ellen Rudin died March 18 aged 92. After retiring, Rudin wrote and compiled some children's books, including the Golden Books The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Me first.