Obituaries

Joe O’Donnell, 85, photographer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Joe O’Donnell, who shot some of the first photographs after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and who served as a White House photographer spanning the terms of five presidents, died Aug. 9 after years of failing health. He was 85.

He began his photography career as a young Marine at the outbreak of World War II, where he recorded the Pacific Campaign. In September 1945, Mr. O’Donnell was one of the first outsiders to visit Hiroshima after its destruction by the atomic bomb. He put many of those photographs away in a trunk because he thought they were too painful to see.

In the 1990s, they were displayed for the first time in Europe and Japan and in 2005 they were put into a book published by Vanderbilt University Press, “Japan 1945: A U.S. Marine’s Photographs From Ground Zero.”

After the war, Mr. O’Donnell began working as a freelance photographer in Washington, where he was recruited by the U.S. Information Agency to photograph presidents.

He worked as a White House photographer during the administrations of Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

Mr. O’Donnell moved to Nashville after he retired in 1968 with a medical disability that was discovered to have been caused by the radiation exposure he suffered while photographing Japan after its surrender.

Jean Hogan Hickey, ballroom dancer

MILLERTON, N.Y. (AP) — Jean Hogan Hickey, a former dancer at famed New York City nightclub the Copacabana, died Aug. 9 of colon cancer at her 20-acre estate in Dutchess County, her daughter said. She was 84.

She was a champion ballroom dancer who won several trophies from Arthur Murray Studios in the 1940s. She also performed in former Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller’s Water Show, said her daughter, Magee Hickey Salembier.

Miss Hickey was born April 13, 1923, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and later attended Brooklyn College. She also studied drama at Columbia University and was a featured performer at the Amateur Comedy Club in Manhattan.

She performed in more than 200 productions, including Broadway’s 1970 production of “Conduct Unbecoming” and an off-Broadway production of James Joyce’s “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.”

Miss Hickey served as a religious instructor and was a longtime choir member at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan.

Yone Minagawa, 114, world’s oldest person

TOKYO (AP) — Yone Minagawa, who became the world’s oldest person earlier this year, died Aug. 13 at a nursing home in Fukuchi, Japan. She was 114.

Miss Minagawa raised four sons and a daughter on her own by peddling flowers and vegetables.

Born Jan. 4, 1893, she was named the world’s oldest person by the Guinness Book of World Records in January after the death of Emma Faust Tillman, also 114, in the United States.

Miss Minagawa outlived all of her children except one daughter, and had seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, according to the nursing home.

Japan has one of the world’s longest average life spans — a factor often attributed to a healthy diet rich in fish and rice. The number of Japanese living beyond 100 has almost quadrupled in the past 10 years and is soon expected to surpass 28,000, the government announced in September.