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WE LOST MANY INFLUENTIAL IRISH-AMERICANS IN THE LAST YEAR. THOUGH IMPOSSIBLE TO MENTION THEM ALL, HERE IS OUR TRIBUTE TO SOME OF THOSE WHO TOUCHED OUR LIVES.
FRANK CONROY
Frank Conroy, the author of the classic coming-of-age Stop Time, died of colon cancer in April 2005. He was 69 years old.
Conroy had been a literary staple in the American cultural scene. Following an extensive career in academia, Conroy became the director of the most prestigious writing program in the country - the Iowa Writers' Workshop - a post he held for 17 years.
Conroy published six books, including Time & Tide: A Walk Through Nantucket and Body & Soul, which has been published in French, German, Portuguese, Finnish and Japanese. His articles and short stories appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, and GQ, to name a few, and he lectured nationally and internationally. In 2003, he received the National Humanities Medal from President Bush.
Conroy's expertise extended beyond literature. He was also a jazz pianist, and a member of the jazz band Close Enough. He won a Grammy Award in 1986.
A second-generation Irish-American, Conroy felt strong ties with his heritage. "It is perhaps because I'm a writer," he told Irish America on being named to the Top 100 in 2005 "but I've always felt a spiritual connection to Ireland and the Irish."
GERALDINE FITZGERALD
Geraldine Fitzgerald, the beautiful and talented screen and stage actress, died from complications of Alzheimer's disease on July 17, 2005 at her Upper East Side home in New York.
Born in 1913 in Dublin, Fitzgerald joined Dublin's famous Gate Theatre, where her aunt was one of the leading stars, before moving to New York in 1938.
Once in New York, Fitzgerald's old friend Orson Welles gave her a part in the play, Heartbreak hotel, which he was directing at the Mercury Theatre.
Soon afterwards, Fitzgerald was discovered by Hollywood and signed by Warner Brothers. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Isabella Linton opposite Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights in 1939. That same year she appeared with Bette Davis in Dark Victory.
During World War II, Fitzgerald's husband, Edward Lindsay-Hogg, an Irish aristocrat, moved to England, while Fitzgerald stayed in Los Angeles...