Milestones

ST. LOUIS (AP) — With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature "Moon River," Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about.

"The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't there," the singer once recalled. "Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred — not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself."

Williams' plaintive tenor, boyish features and easy demeanor helped him outlast many of the rock stars who had displaced him and such fellow crooners as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, and continued to perform in his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson, Mo. In November 2011, when Williams announced that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, he vowed to return to performing the following year: His 75th in show business.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Clarke Duncan, the hulking, prolific character actor whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in "The Green Mile" and such other box office hits as "Armageddon," ''Planet of the Apes" and "Kung Fu Panda," is dead at age 54.

Clarke died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiancée, reality TV personality Rev. Omarosa Manigault, in a statement released by publicist Joy Fehily.

The muscular, 6-foot-4 (1.96 meter) Duncan, a former bodyguard who turned to acting in his 30s, "suffered a myocardial infarction on July 13 and never fully recovered," the statement said. "Manigault is grateful for all of your prayers and asks for privacy at this time. Celebrations of his life, both private and public, will be announced at a later date."

Los Alamos Medical Center reported the following births:

• Aug. 1: A boy, Grady William Nackers, Christina and William Nackers  

• Aug. 2: A girl, Hazel Bryn Torres, born to Kaylee and Aaron Torres

• Aug. 4: A girl, Charlotte Sofia Moro, born to Lauren and Erik Moro

• Aug. 7: A boy, Gabriel Vincent Elca, born to Divina Anunciado and Aridel Elca

• Aug. 7: A girl, Emily Q. Huang, born to Wenjing Oiu and Chen Huang

• Aug. 8: A boy, Elijah Ben Arellano, born to Faith Martinez and Jerome Arellano

• Aug. 9: A girl, Joslynn Marie Romero, born to Alicia Herrera and Eric Romero

• Aug. 10: A boy, Lucius Kang, born to Ni Ni and Zhongbo Kang

• Aug. 13: A girl, Mia Bella Sandoval, born to Brittany and Frank Sandoval

• Aug. 14: A girl, Jazmine Lynette Martinez, born to Cassandra Jordan and Juan Martinez

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Phyllis Diller, the housewife turned humorist who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes with her trademark cackle, died Monday morning in her Los Angeles home at age 95.

"She died peacefully in her sleep and with a smile on her face," her longtime manager, Milton Suchin, told The Associated Press.

Diller, who suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1999, was found by her son, Perry Diller. The cause of her death has not been released.

She was a staple of nightclubs and television from the 1950s — when female comics were rare indeed — until her retirement in 2002. Diller built her stand-up act around the persona of the corner-cutting housewife ("I bury a lot of my ironing in the backyard") with bizarre looks, a wardrobe to match (by "Omar of Omaha") and a husband named "Fang."