Jon Mooallem

Writer-at-Large at The New York Times

(not on here) Author, SERIOUS FACE, THIS IS CHANCE! and WILD ONES.

Articles

Lulu Roman, ‘Hee Haw’ Star and Gospel Singer, Dies at 78

1 week ago | wsj.com | Jon Mooallem

Roman left the show after being arrested for drug possession, but returned after she reinvented herself as a singer and proselytizer“Hee Haw,” which premiered on CBS in 1969, was conceived as a kind of vaudeville revue for rural America: a parade of corny comedy sketches; buxom girls in pigtails, denim and gingham; and guest performances by country music A-listers—all hosted by the celebrated, cowboy-hat-wearing musicians Buck Owens and Roy Clark.
Roe Messner, a Prolific Church Builder and Husband of Tammy Faye Bakker, Dies at 89

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Jon Mooallem

Messner, who claimed to have been behind the building of more than 1,800 churches, served just over two years in prison for hiding assets during bankruptcy proceedingsIn the 1980s, the televangelist Jim Bakker was riding a sensational wave of fame, religious fervor and cash, bringing in more than $100 million in revenue annually as the founder and face, along with his wife Tammy Faye, of “The PTL Club” television show and PTL Satellite Network.
Susan Tose Spencer, Who Ran the Philadelphia Eagles in the Mid-1980s, Dies at 83

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Jon Mooallem

Spencer, who was a de facto general manager—the only woman in that role in NFL history—was unable to undo the financial damage caused by her fatherIn early 1983, the Philadelphia Eagles football team was on the brink of financial ruin. A strike-shortened season had exacerbated longer-standing shortfalls.
George Bell, Once Named the Tallest Person in the U.S., Dies at 67

4 weeks ago | tntribune.com | Jon Mooallem

George Bell was 7 feet 8 inches tall. He was so tall that strangers were constantly coming up to him to take pictures and ask the same dumbstruck question: “How tall are you?”; that he learned early on to request two beds end-to-end when he made hotel reservations; that children would rush outside after church, needing to see how the quiet colossus they’d been staring at in the pews would manage to get into his regular-size car.
Mark Klein, the AT&T Whistleblower Who Revealed NSA Spying, Dies at 79

1 month ago | wsj.com | Jon Mooallem

The AT&T technician predated Edward Snowden by seven years, but his allegations were never able to achieve tractionIn October 2003, the AT&T technician Mark Klein was transferred to a small office on San Francisco’s Folsom Street where he was tasked with maintaining the seventh floor “internet room,” where fiber-optic cables carried billions of bits of data across the company’s network every second.
George Bell, Once Named the Tallest Person in the U.S., Dies at 67

1 month ago | wsj.com | Jon Mooallem

George Bell was 7 feet 8 inches tall. He was so tall that strangers were constantly coming up to him to take pictures and ask the same dumbstruck question: “How tall are you?”; that he learned early on to request two beds end-to-end when he made hotel reservations; that children would rush outside after church, needing to see how the quiet colossus they’d been staring at in the pews would manage to get into his regular-size car.
Junior Bridgeman, Former Milwaukee Buck Who Made a Fortune After Retiring From Basketball, Dies at 71

1 month ago | wsj.com | Jon Mooallem

The former Milwaukee Bucks star owned part of the team, in addition to a business empire that included fast-food franchises and Coca-Cola bottling operationsJunior Bridgeman spent 10 of his 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association with the Milwaukee Bucks, who promptly retired his jersey number after he stepped away from the game in 1987.
Uri Shulevitz Dies at 89, a Writer and Illustrator of Children’s Books

1 month ago | wsj.com | Jon Mooallem

Uri Shulevitz arrived at the New York offices of Harper & Row publishers one day in 1962 without an appointment, portfolio in hand. Shulevitz was a recent immigrant, living hand-to-mouth, and looking for illustration gigs to make ends meet. The editor he met with, Susan Hirschman, asked why he wasn’t writing and illustrating his own stories instead. Shulevitz had never considered it. Writing “seemed to me kind of a magical ability,” he later explained. And so, he began lobbing excuses at Hirschman.
David Edward Byrd, Whose Posters Captured the Psychedelic Age, Dies at 83

2 months ago | wsj.com | Jon Mooallem

David Edward Byrd moved to a farm in Port Jervis, N.Y., in 1967 to join a community of other young artists known as Fantasy Unlimited. The group was simultaneously a hippie commune and a driven, capitalist enterprise. It produced multimedia light shows, featuring luminescent liquid projections of undulating color, hand-drawn animations, bubble machines and strobes—at dance parties and corporate events.
Roberta Flack, Who Won Back-to-Back Grammys for Record of the Year, Dies at 88

2 months ago | wsj.com | Jon Mooallem

Your browser does not support the audio tag. 00:00 / 02:06This article is in your queue. In March 1971, a group of superstar Black musicial acts, including Wilson Pickett and Ike & Tina Turner, traveled to Ghana to play a concert celebrating that nation’s independence day.