Obituaries in the news

Obituaries in the news

Al Alberts

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Veteran TV talent-show host Al Alberts, one in a long line of South Philadelphia crooners, died Friday in Florida, a son said. He was 87.

Alberts featured child singers and dancers on his “Al Alberts Showcase,” which was produced in Philadelphia for more than three decades.

He also was a founding member of The Four Aces, whose hits included “Three Coins in the Fountain,” ”On the Way to Cape May” and “Love is a Many Splendored Thing.”

Alberts died at his home in Arcadia, Fla., near Port Charlotte, according to his son, Chris Alberts. He had been hospitalized in recent months and apparently died of complications from kidney failure, the son said.

Alberts’ weekly show helped start the careers of local performers Andrea McCardle, Sister Sledge and Teddy Pendergrass, according to Alberts’ Web site.

The long list of Philadelphia crooners of his era includes Bobby Rydell, Fabian, Frankie Avalon and Eddie Fisher.

Bob Twigg

LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — Bob Twigg, a former USA Today journalist who won $9 million in the Virginia Lottery, has died. he was 62.

Jan Alderton, editor of the Cumberland (Md.) Times-News, says Twigg was a Cumberland native who worked at the Times-News, The Herald-Mail in Hagerstown, Md., and the Pensacola (Fla.) News-Journal before joining USA Today in 1983.

He won the lottery in January 1996 and retired later that year.

Twigg returned to journalism as publisher of the Senior News in Loudoun County in 1998 and editor of the Loudoun Times-Mirror in 2005.

Twigg, who had lung cancer, died Nov. 16 in Leesburg, Va.