Notable Deaths of 2012 — PICTURES

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Richard Ben Cramer died Monday, January 7. His career spanned his prize-winning work in the Middle East for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a best-selling biography of Joe DiMaggio. He died of complications from lung cancer and was 62 years old. (CSPAN)

General Norman Schwarzkopf, who led troops during the first Gulf War, died on Thursday, December 27, 2012.

Den.Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) died Monday, December 17, 2012. Inouye served in the Senate since 1963.

Former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., died on Monday, November 19, 2012. Rudman served from 1980 to 1993. (AP Photo/Lana Harris)

Former Rep. Joseph Early, D-Mass., died on Nov. 9 at his home in Worcester, Mass., after a brief illness. Early, 79, served in the House from 1975 to 1993. (Houe of Representatives)

Former Sen. George McGovern died Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012, in hospice care in Sioux Falls, S.D., surrounded by family and longtime friends. A longtime member of the House and Senate, McGovern is best known for his 1972 presidential race against Nixon. ((AP Photo/Bill Haber))

Former Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., died Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, at his home in Philadelphia from complications from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. His career spanned nearly five decades from his time as a Philadelphia district attorney in the early 1960s to his unsuccessful bid in 2010 for reelection as a U.S. senator. He was 82. ((AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File))

Florida Rep. Sam Gibbons died at the age of 92 either late Tuesday or early Wednesday, October 10, 2012. Gibbons served 17 terms and was House Ways and Means Chairman from 1994 until 1995. (AP Photo/Charles Gorry)

Former New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger died at the age of 86 on Saturday, September 29. He is perhaps best known for the decision to publish the Pentagon Papers. (AP file photo)

U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens (center) was killed on Sept. 11 in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Three other Americans also died in the attack. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial founder of the Unification Church and The Washington Times died on Sept. 3 in South Korea. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, died on August 25 due to complications due to cardiovascular surgery. Armstrong was 82 years old. (NASA)

Washington Post columnist William Raspberry died of prostate cancer on July 17 at his home in Washington. Raspberry's "fiercely independent views illuminated conflicts concerning education, poverty, crime, and race," according to the Post, and "was one of the first black journalists to gain a wide following in the mainstream press." Raspberry is pictured in 1994 after he learned that he had won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. (AP PHOTO/Denis Paquin)

The first American woman in space, Sally Ride, died of cancer on July 23 in La Jolla, Calif., NPR reports. Ride, who was 61, answered a 1977 ad seeking astronauts for NASA missions. She is pictured in 2010 at an event with President Obama, where he announced an expansion of an initiative to improve science education. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Space shuttle astronaut Alan (Dex) Poindexter, 50, died in a personal watercraft accident on July 1 in Florida, Reuters reports. Poindexter, who was the son of former Reagan administration National Security Adviser John Poindexter, was a crew member for two shuttle missions: He piloted Atlantis to the International Space Station in 2008 and commanded a Discovery cargo run in 2010. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir gestures during a news conference on April 10, 1989 in Chicago. Shamir detailed some of the issues he discussed last week in his meeting with President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker III.Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir died on Saturday June 30, 2012. He was 96 years old. He is shown here gesturing during a news conference on April 10, 1989 in Chicago. Shamir detailed some of the issues he discussed last week in his meeting with President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker III. (CHARLES BENNETT/AP)

Judy Agnew, wife of former Vice President Spiro Agnew, died on June 20 in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at the age of 91, according to The Washington Post. The cause of death was not disclosed. Her husband was President Nixon's vice president until he resigned in 1973 after an investigation into allegations of bribery and extortion. Judy Agnew is pictured at left along with her husband, Nixon, and first lady Pat Nixon. (AP Photo)

Author Ray Bradbury at a signing for his book "Quicker Than The Eye" in Cupertino, Calif. Bradbury, who wrote everything from science-fiction and mystery to humor, died Tuesday, June 5, 2012 in Southern California. He was 91.  (AP Photo/Steve Castillo)

Al-Qaida’s second in command, Abu Yahya al-Libi, seen here in a screen grab, was killed in a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan, the Associated Press reported on June 5, 2012. (SITE INTELLIGENCE GROUP)

Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was found dead on Wednesday, May 16, on her husband's property in Bedford, N.Y., of an apparent suicide. She was 52. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)

Retired Lt. Cmdr. Wesley A. Brown, 85, the first African-American to graduate from the Naval Academy, died on May 22 at an assisted-living facility in Silver Spring, Md. He had cancer. After graduating in 1949, Brown went on to serve as a civil engineer in the Navy for 20 years. He was a veteran of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Former Sen. Jim Abdnor, R-S.D., died on Wednesday, May 16, in hospice care in Sioux Falls, S.D., according to the Argus Leader newspaper. Abdnor, 89, died of natural causes, his family told the Associated Press. Abdnor, who served on the Senate Appropriations Committee, was a four-term House member in 1980 when he defeated former Sen. George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1972. Abdnor (center, flanked by Treasury Secretary James Baker III and Sen. Dennis DiConcini, D-Ariz., in 1986) was defeated for a second term by Democrat Tom Daschle. (AP Photo/Lana Harris, File)

Former Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach died on Tuesday, May 8, at his home in Skillman, N.J. He was 90. As the attorney general during the Johnson administration, Katzenbach was also a central player during the Kennedy administration, particularly in advancing civil-right issues and "helping to map Vietnam War strategy," according to the New York Times. He's pictured here shaking hands with a group of demonstrators outside his Justice Department office, after pleading with them to leave, in 1965. (AP)

Dick Clark, long the face of America's New Year's Eve celebration on TV and the host of American Bandstand died on April 18. He was 82. (AP Photo/Krista Niles)

Mike Wallace, longtime CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent, died Sunday, April 8, 2012, at age 93.In this May 8, 2006 file photo, Wallace is seen during an interview at his office in New York. ((AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews))

. In this 1957 file photo, Wallace (left) and British writer Malcolm Muggeridge chat with each other in ABC Television Studio before their appearance on the network's "Mike Wallace Interview" show in New York City. Muggeridge, who touched off a storm of protest by criticizing the British Monarchy. Earlier October 19, Muggeridge had been fired from his job as columnist on the conservative London Dispatch. The TV interview was blacked out in Washington where the Queen Elizabeth II currently is on a state visit. ((AP Photo))

Tonga's monarch, King George Tupou V, died on Sunday, March 18 at a hospital in Hong Kong. The cause of death wasn't announced, according to The Christian Science Monitor. Tupou helped his country make the transition to become a parliamentary democracy in 2010. "The United States has lost a friend and the people of Tonga have lost a visionary leader," President Obama said in a statement. The king is pictured at his coronation in 2010 with his aide-de-camp, Christian Tupou. (AP Photo/Torsten Blackwood, POOL)

House Foreign Affairs Committee member Donald Payne, D-N.J., passed away on Tuesday, March 6 after a battle with colon cancer, according to local news reports. He was 77. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart passed away on Thursday from "natural causes," according to Big Journalism, one of the websites he owned. He was 43. (Chet Susslin)

Frank Cushing, a former staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, died on Feb. 6 of a brain tumor at his home in Falls Church. He was 59 years old. (Courtesy of the Cushing family)

Longtime Penn State football coach Joe Paterno died on Jan. 22 after a battle with lung cancer. Paterno, who won more games than any other coach in major college football, was fired amid a child sex-abuse scandal in which his former assistant Jerry Sandusky was charged with multiple counts of abuse. President Obama called the Paterno family to offer his condolences the day after Paterno died. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Former Rep. Ed Jenkins, D-Ga. (far left), appears with a group of visiting U.S. congressmen meeting with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher inside No. 10 Downing Street in London on July 4, 1989. Jenkins, who represented Georgia in Congress for 16 years, died on Jan. 1 after suffering from a long illness. He was 78. (PETER KEMP/AP)

In this March 7, 1995, file photo, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his press secretary, Tony Blankley (left), meet with reporters during a daily Capitol Hill news conference. Blankley, who later worked as a conservative author and commentator, died on Sunday, Jan. 8 of stomach cancer. He was 63. (JOE MARQUETTE/AP)

Former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow, shown here with former President George W. Bush, died on Jan. 12 after a battle with cancer. The four-term governor was a flamboyant politician who left a lasting mark on South Dakota politics. He was 72. (SUSAN WALSH/AP)