The son of Cuban immigrants, Malo and his band blended country, rock and roll, folk, jump blues, Latin music and Cajun rhythms into a distinct sound anchored by his unmistakable voice.

The pianist, composer and arranger spent more than six decades turning El Gran Combo into one of the premier salsa institutions of Latin America and beyond.

Charles Norman Shay died Dec. 3 at age 101. He was a citizen of the Penobscot Nation who saved fellow soldiers storming Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944.

Gehry transformed modern architecture with exuberant buildings such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Guggenheim Museum. "I've always been for optimism and architecture not being sad," he said.

Stoppard, who died Nov. 29, wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Real Thing, and the screenplays for Empire of the Sun and Shakespeare in Love. Originally broadcast in 1991.

Steve Cropper, the Booker T. & the MG guitarist, songwriter and producer who was instrumental in the rise of R&B powerhouse Stax Records, died in Nashville at 84.

Steve Cropper, who co-wrote classics including "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" and "In the Midnight Hour" during his years playing guitar at the legendary Stax Records in Memphis, has died. He was 84.

The playwright Tom Stoppard, who penned shows including Arcadia and Travesties and the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love, died last week.

Tom Stoppard is remembered as a playwright whose wit and curiosity reshaped modern theater.

Two-time golf champion Fuzzy Zoeller has died at the age of 74. One of golf's most gregarious characters Zoeller's career was tainted by a racially insensitive joke he made about Tiger Woods.