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Aretha Franklin — the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and known as the “Queen of Soul” for powerful anthems like “Respect” and “Chain of Fools” — died Thursday morning at her home in Detroit. She was 76.

Franklin died of pancreatic cancer, the singer’s publicist said in a statement issued by the family.

“In one of the darkest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our heart,” the family said. “We have lost the matriarch and rock of our family.”

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Aretha Franklin in an undated portrait. RB / Redferns

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Click link below for article:

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/aretha-franklin-undisputed-queen-soul-dies-age-76-n822841

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Anthony Bourdain, the frenetic celebrity chef and television host who took viewers on a culinary journey through more than 80 countries and spoke candidly about his past descent into drug addiction, has died, CNN said Friday. He was 61.

The network reported suicide was the cause of death.

“His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller,” the network said in a statement. “His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time.”

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Anthony Bourdain on Pier 57 in New York in 2015.Alex Welsh / The New York Times / Redux Pictures

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Click link below for article and video:

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/anthony-bourdain-celebrity-chef-parts-unknown-host-dies-61-n881251

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Philip Roth, whose sexually scandalous comic novel “Portnoy’s Complaint” brought him literary celebrity after its publication in 1969 and who was eventually hailed as one of America’s greatest living authors for the blunt force and controlled fury of his dozens of later works, died May 22 at hospital in Manhattan. He was 85.

His literary agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed the death to the Associated Press and said the cause was congestive heart failure. No other details were immediately available.

Mr. Roth’s 1959 debut story collection, “Goodbye, Columbus,” earned him the first of two National Book Awards. He would go on to publish 27 novels, two memoirs and several more story collections by the time he publicly retired from writing in 2012. His lifelong themes included sex and desire, health and mortality, and Jewishness and its obligations — arguably his most definitive subject, given the controversy surrounding his earliest works.

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Novelist Philip Roth at his home in Warren, Conn., in 2005. (Douglas Healey/AP)

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Click link below for article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/philip-roth-seminal-author-of-comical-and-simmering-discontents-dies-at-85/2018/05/22/fa5bb262-5e38-11e8-a4a4-c070ef53f315_story.html?utm_term=.262024661ea3

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