Steve Jobs Dies: Apple Chief Created Personal Computer, iPad, iPod [ABC]

“To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.” [R.E.M.]

Oscar-winning actor Cliff Robertson dies at 88 [LAT]

Rudolf Brazda, the last known living “pink triangle” survivor of Nazi concentration camps, died on August 3 at the age of 98. He spent three years in Buchenwald.  He once commented that his oppressors “were never able to destroy me. I am not ashamed.”

Born in Germany to Czech parents, after liberation from the camp, he lived in the Alsace region of France, including 52 years with his partner, who passed away in 2002.

The photo of Mr. Brazda on this post was taken in 2008 at the dedication of a Berlin memorial to the gay (and presumed/perceived gay) victims and survivors of the Third Reich. In April of this year, he was awarded the French Legion d’Honneur for promoting awareness of the deportation of homosexuals during WWII.

Meanwhile, a few days after Brazda’s death, GOP Presidential candidate Guv. Good Hair prayed at an event sponsored by a hate group that says gays were responsible for the Holocaust.

[LAT & SF Sentinel]

Amy Winehouse found dead in her London home [LAT]

And only a day after Orrin Hatch trotted out Thurston Howell III.

Sherwood Schwartz, Creator of Gilligan and the Bradys, Dies at 94 [NYT]

Former first lady Betty Ford dies at the age of 93 [CNN]