Mary Anne Fleck, 73, was a longtime editor-writer for the Capitol Hill Times and other neighborhood newspapers in the chain now known as Pacific Publishing. She took a traditional approach to community news; into the '80s she still identified ladies'-society leaders as "Mrs. (Husband's First Name) (Husband's Last Name)." She would also often attempt florid prose ("Sunday is the occasion of the completion of the implementation of the company's non-smoking policy"). Her eight kids include local lounge pianist Ben Fleck.

Inga Bardahl, 98, the Norwegian-born local socialite, was the widow of Ole Bardahl, founder of the oil-additive manufacturer known for its landmark Ballard neon sign (and, from 1957 to 1969, for sponsoring one of the top boats in the city's annual hydroplane races).

Victor Kiam, 74, was a former Playtex executive who took over Remington Products Co. in 1979. In TV commercials, he claimed he'd liked Remington razors so much that he bought the company. In 1998 he also bought the NFL's New England Patriots; he became the target of a 1990 boycott campaign after Kiam allegedly made a lesbian-related slur toward a female Boston Herald sportswriter.

Hank Ketcham, 81, was a Seattle-born Disney animator in the '40s, then in 1951 he started the panel cartoon Dennis the Menace. While tamer than a rowdy-boy British strip of the same name (begun the same week) and more formulaic than Peanuts (begun the previous year), it appeared in over 1,000 newspapers and spawned two TV series, a Broadway musical, and a 1993 movie. Ketcham heavily used ghost writers and artists, and retired from the strip's production in 1994. Unlike the strip's harmonious nuclear family of Dennis and parents Henry and Alice, Ketcham was estranged from son Dennis Ketcham, and Hank's ex-wife Alice died in 1959 from a drug overdose.

Juanita Fisher Graham, 103, was a leader in many local charitable groups and the daughter of O. D. Fisher, founder of a family business dynasty that eventually included scone mixes and KOMO-TV.

Imogene Coca, 92, the comic actress, died a week after her work on the pioneering TV variety series Your Show of Shows was revisited in Showtime's version of the Neil Simon play Laughter on the 23rd Floor (and the channel's accompanying documentary about her old costar, Hail Sid Caesar).

Arlene Francis, 93, hosted radio and TV talk shows, acted in Broadway plays, and was the slip-clad "Woman of the Streets" killed by Bela Lugosi in the horror film Murders in the Rue Morgue. But she's best remembered as a witty, impeccably dressed panelist on the game show What's My Line from its second episode in 1950 to its last in 1975. Now, St. Peter can ask her to enter and sign in please.