Human Race

DIED: Estelle Getty, who played Sophia Petrillo on the hit TV show The Golden Girls, died July 22. The diminutive 84-year-old actress worked for years in low-paying secretarial positions until landing her big break in 1985 playing the sarcastic octogenarian during the show's seven-year run. Even at the height of her success, Getty's son Carl Gettleman said she still drove a Toyota Tercel and "lived a life that people could completely identify with."

DIED: New York Yankees legend Bobby Murcer died July 12 of complications from brain cancer. Once billed as the next Mickey Mantle, the five-time All-Star spent the bulk of his 17-year playing career with the Yankees before leaving the baseball field for the broadcasting booth in 1983. Murcer, 62, told the Christian Chronicle last year that his cancer diagnosis in 2006 served to strengthen his long-standing Christian faith: "It's not what my will is. It's what God's will is. And whatever His will is, it's fine with us."