LONDON — Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of the so-called “God particle” that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, has died at age 94, the University of Edinburgh said Tuesday.

The university, where Higgs was emeritus professor, said he died Monday following a short illness.

Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle, which came to be known as the Higgs boson, in 1964. He theorized that there must be a sub-atomic particle of certain dimension that would explain how other particles — and therefore all the stars and planets in the universe — acquired mass. Without something like this particle, the set of equations physicists use to describe the world, known as the standard model, would not hold together.

Higgs’ work helps scientists understand one of the most fundamental riddles of the universe: how the Big Bang created something out of nothing 13.8 billion years ago. Without mass from the Higgs, particles could not clump together into the matter we interact with every day.

But it would be almost 50 years before the particle’s existence could be confirmed. In 2012, in one of the biggest breakthroughs in physics in decades, scientists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, announced that they had finally found a Higgs boson using the Large Hardron Collider, the $10 billion atom smasher in a 17-mile  tunnel under the Swiss-French border.

The collider was designed in large part to find Higgs’ particle. It produces collisions with extraordinarily high energies in order to mimic some of the conditions that were present in the trillionths of seconds after the Big Bang.

Higgs won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work, alongside Francois Englert of Belgium, who independently came up with the same theory.

Edinburgh University Vice Chancellor Peter Mathieson said Higgs, who was born in Newcastle, was “a remarkable individual – a truly gifted scientist whose vision and imagination have enriched our knowledge of the world that surrounds us.”

“His pioneering work has motivated thousands of scientists, and his legacy will continue to inspire many more for generations to come.”

Born in Newcastle, northeast England on May 29, 1929, Higgs studied at King’s College, University of London, and was awarded a PhD in 1954. He spent much of his career at Edinburgh, becoming the Personal Chair of Theoretical Physics at the Scottish university in 1980. He retired in 1996.

One highlight of Higgs’ career came in the 2013 presentation at CERN in Geneva where scientists presented in complex terms — based on statistical analysis unfathomable to most laypeople — that the boson had been confirmed. He broke into tears, wiping down his glasses in the stands of a CERN lecture hall.

“Peter was a very touching person. He was so sweet, so warm at the same time. And so always interested in what other people had to say,” she said. “Able to listen to other people … open, and interesting, and interested.”

Joel Goldstein, of the School of Physics at the University of Bristol, said: “Peter Higgs was a quiet and modest man, who never seemed comfortable with the fame he achieved even though this work underpins the entire modern theoretical framework of particle physics.”

Gianotti recalled how Higgs often bristled at the term “God particle” for his discovery: “I don’t think he liked this kind of definition,” she said. “It was not in his style.”

His daughter Gudrun said Tuesday that Flaherty died Monday following a brief illness.

Flaherty, who was born in Pittsburgh, spent seven years at The Second City in Chicago before moving north of the border to help establish the theater’s Toronto outpost.

He went on to star alongside John Candy and Catherine O’Hara in “SCTV,″ about a fictional TV station known as Second City Television that was stacked with buffoons in front of and behind the cameras. Flaherty’s characters included network boss Guy Caballero and the vampiric TV host Count Floyd.

Former castmates also included Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas and Andrea Martin.

He won Emmys in 1982 and 1983 for his writing on “SCTV” and continued to work in TV and film for decades.

He was introduced to later generations through memorable turns as a jeering heckler in the 1996 film “Happy Gilmore” and as an old fashioned dad in the TV comedy “Freaks and Geeks,” which ran from 1999 to 2000.

“Oh man. Worshipped Joe growing up,” comedian Adam Sandler said on X. “Always had me and my brother laughing. Count Floyd, Guy Caballero. Any move he made.”

Flaherty maintained deep ties to Toronto, serving as an artist-in-residence at Humber College.

“Dad was an extraordinary man, known for his boundless heart and an unwavering passion for movies from the ’40s and ’50s,” his daughter wrote in Tuesday’s statement. “Cinema wasn’t merely a hobby for him; it profoundly influenced his career, particularly his unforgettable time with ‘SCTV.’ He cherished every moment spent on the show, so proud of its success and so proud to be part of an amazing cast.”

NEW YORK — “Babar” author Laurent de Brunhoff, who revived his father’s popular picture book series about an elephant-king and presided over its rise to a global, multimedia franchise, has died. He was 98.

De Brunhoff, a Paris native who moved to the U.S. in the 1980s, died Friday at his home in Key West, Florida, after being in hospice care for two weeks, according to his widow, Phyllis Rose.

Just 12 years old when his father, Jean de Brunhoff, died of tuberculosis, Laurent was an adult when he drew upon his own gifts as a painter and storyteller and released dozens of books about the elephant who reigns over Celesteville, among them “Babar at the Circus” and “Babar’s Yoga for Elephants.” He preferred using fewer words than his father did, but his illustrations faithfully mimicked Jean’s gentle, understated style.

“Together, father and son have woven a fictive world so seamless that it is nearly impossible to detect where one stopped and the other started,” author Ann S. Haskell wrote in The New York Times in 1981.

The series has sold millions of copies worldwide and was adapted for a television program and such animated features as “Babar: The Movie” and “Babar: King of the Elephants.” Fans ranged from Charles de Gaulle to Maurice Sendak, who once wrote, “If he had come my way, how I would have welcomed that little elephant and smothered him with affection.”

De Brunhoff would say of his creation, “Babar, c’est moi” (“that’s me”), telling National Geographic in 2014 that “he’s been my whole life, for years and years, drawing the elephant.”

The books’ appeal was far from universal. Some parents shied from the passage in the debut, “The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant,” about Babar’s mother being shot and killed by hunters. Numerous critics called the series racist and colonialist, citing Babar’s education in Paris and its influence on his (presumed) Africa-based regime. In 1983, Chilean author Ariel Dorfman would call the books an “implicit history that justifies and rationalizes the motives behind an international situation in which some countries have everything and other countries almost nothing.”

“Babar’s history,” Dorfman wrote, “is none other than the fulfillment of the dominant countries’ colonial dream.”

Adam Gopnik, a Paris-based correspondent for The New Yorker, defended “Babar,” writing in 2008 that it “is not an unconscious expression of the French colonial imagination; it is a self-conscious comedy about the French colonial imagination and its close relation to the French domestic imagination.”

De Brunhoff himself acknowledged finding it “a little embarrassing to see Babar fighting with Black people in Africa. He especially regretted “Babar’s Picnic,” a 1949 publication that included crude caricatures of Blacks and American Indians, and asked his publisher to withdraw it.

De Brunhoff was the eldest of three sons born to Jean de Brunhoff and Cecile de Brunhoff, a painter. Babar was created when Cecile de Brunhoff, the namesake for the elephant’s kingdom and Babar’s wife, improvised a story for her kids.

“My mother started to tell us a story to distract us,” de Brunhoff told National Geographic in 2014. “We loved it, and the next day we ran to our father’s study, which was in the corner of the garden, to tell him about it. He was very amused and started to draw. And that was how the story of Babar was born. My mother called him Bebe elephant (French for baby). It was my father who changed the name to Babar. But the first pages of the first book, with the elephant killed by a hunter and the escape to the city, was her story.”

“Gradually I began to feel strongly that a Babar tradition existed and that it ought to be perpetuated,” he wrote in The New York Times in 1952.

De Brunhoff was married twice, most recently to the critic and biographer Phyllis Rose, who wrote the text to many of the recent “Babar” publications, including the 2017 release billed as the finale, “Babar’s Guide to Paris.” He had two children, Anne and Antoine, but the author did not consciously write for young people.

“I never really think of children when I do my books,” he told the Wall Street Journal in 2017. “Babar was my friend and I invented stories with him, but not with kids in a corner of my mind. I write it for myself.”

EMERSON, Neb. — Corliss Hassler rushes in the front door of Post 60 Market and heads straight for the produce case.

“I’m back,” she announces.

It’s around lunchtime, but it’s already her second trip in today — this time, she’s picking up a few items for the Friday fish fry at the local Catholic church.

Hassler is a regular customer and investor in the small grocery store, opened in 2022 as a cooperative. The store provides convenience, sure: It’s the only place in town to buy fresh fruits, vegetables and meats. But it’s also a social hub for the northeast Nebraska town of Emerson, population 891.

“The store is the lifeblood of the community,” Hassler said. “We have to keep our store, we have to keep our schools, we have to keep our churches — and it’s all a struggle right now.”

The market opened four years after the closure of the town’s only grocery store. Some 110 community members bought shares, which funded the transformation of a shuttered American Legion post into a brightly lit store packed with fresh and packaged foods.

Preserving grocery stores has been a perennial challenge for rural communities. Small, often declining populations make it tough to turn a profit in an industry known for its razor-thin margins. Increased competition from online retailers, the onslaught of chains such as Dollar General stores and an aging lineup of independent grocers have only made things tougher.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has tracked the decline of rural grocery stores.

By 2015, USDA research showed a total of 44 counties had no grocery store at all — all but four of the counties were rural.

In Kansas, 1 in 5 rural stores closed between 2008 and 2018, according to the Rural Grocery Initiative at Kansas State University. No new store has opened in half of the 105 communities that lost grocers over that time.

Proposed legislation at Nebraska’s capitol in Lincoln could provide some relief for stores like Post 60 Market.

If passed, the new law would provide grants and loans for small grocers. It’s among several legislative efforts in the region that aim to tackle the complex problem. In neighboring Kansas and Iowa, lawmakers have introduced bills with similar goals, following the lead of states — including Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota and Oklahoma — that have enacted laws setting up special funds to boost rural grocery stores.

“We’re in a global economy and Amazon’s dominating, but that doesn’t mean we should surrender,” said Kansas state Sen. Rob Olson, a Republican.

For two years in a row, Olson has introduced bills that would provide tax incentives for the development of rural grocery stores. A native of rural Kansas who now represents a suburban Kansas City district, Olson said lawmakers should be investing in grocery stores, broadband and housing to improve rural communities.

“If we think about it and we’re smart about it, there’s plenty of opportunities — all throughout the Midwest especially — to grow these economies,” he said.

The pandemic underscored both the importance and fragility of rural grocery stores, said Jillian Linster, interim policy director at the nonprofit Center for Rural Affairs.

“After the pandemic, we have seen a lot of these local grocery stores just struggling to keep the doors open with all the economic and workforce challenges we face in the current economy and the competition from the big-box retailers,” she said.

Based in Lyons, Nebraska, the center has backed bills in both Nebraska and Iowa this session to provide small grants or loans to grocery stores with fewer than 25 employees in underserved communities. The hope is that providing money to replace a broken freezer or leaky roof could make the difference in keeping stores open.

Aside from preserving fresh food access, Linster said, grocery stores serve a wider social role.

“It’s a place where you see your neighbors, where your teenagers get their first job, where there’s a bulletin board with help wanted and things for sale,” she said. “So it’s a really important part of the social infrastructure in our small rural towns.”

‘A service to the community’

Brian Horak knows his customers.

The general manager of Post 60 Market, he knows the busy mom who runs to the frozen foods aisle to find something for dinner that night. He knows the families that only load up their carts on paydays. And he knows when he should check up on someone who hasn’t been in for an unusually long stretch.

Emerson sits at the convergence of three counties, including one of Nebraska’s poorest.

The market can’t compete with the prices of mega retailers like Walmart. But Horak tries to at least beat the costs found at the regional grocery store chain 20 miles away and loads the shelves with plenty of generic options.

Still, some customers will pay with loose change. Others drop in to rummage through the bin of discounted items nearing their expiration dates.

Remote stores like this can struggle to secure vendors. No bakers will deliver fresh bread here, so all the sandwich bread, buns and cupcakes come in frozen. And the store only gets one delivery of fresh food every Wednesday.

“By Tuesday, the bananas start to look pretty sketchy,” Horak said.

But whatever it lacks in variety, the store makes up for in service. Horak will special order just about anything if customers ask.

On a back shelf, he’s set aside a case of Rice-A-Roni for one man, a pack of small Pepsi bottles for a woman in a nursing home and a case of wet cat food for a woman who feeds strays. One man has a standing order for a case of pickled beets every week.

There have been some months when Horak wasn’t sure Post 60 Market’s doors would remain open.

But things changed for the better in January, when a storm blanketed the region with record snow. The two-lane roads connecting Emerson to Sioux City were impassable for days, pushing many locals to try or rediscover Post 60 Market.

“It was kind of a wake-up call,” he said. “People were so happy the grocery store was here.”

The pending legislation could help with a litany of items on the market’s to-do list: a leaky basement, the rubber gaskets that need replacing on the produce cooler — not to mention the dream of a room to butcher fresh cuts of meat.

Named after the town’s former legion post, the co-op sold common shares for $500 and preferred shares for $1,000. While shareholders could one day see dividends, their investments were in reality more like contributions.

Nathan Mueller, who leads the co-op board, said the store just aims to break even.

“At its heart, this is a business,” he said. “But really, the business is being a service to the community.”

Nebraska state Sen. Teresa Ibach said rural grocery stores, whether they’re for-profit, cooperatives or nonprofits, deserve the state’s support.

“I think the trade-off is, if you’re willing to invest in small local communities, we are willing to invest in you.”

A Republican, Ibach sponsored the legislation that would set aside $4 million over two fiscal years for rural grocers. While the legislation got favorable reviews during its January hearing, Ibach was unsure whether it would advance out of committee.

“It’s got legs and it’s got substance and I hope it does, but we’re halfway through the session already,” she said. “And so who knows what will make it to the floor.”

If approved, the measure could help Greg’s Market in Exeter, Nebraska, about 50 miles west of Lincoln. The store has “a honey-do list a mile long,” said Mitchell Schlegelmilch, who leads the board overseeing its operation.

Just before he heard about the legislation, Schlegelmilch said, a freezer sensor failed, costing some $2,500 in spoiled inventory.

“It was a real punch in the gut,” he told lawmakers at the January hearing. “It just took our breath away.”

Investors aren’t looking to make money or even get their money back, Schlegelmilch said in an interview. Greg’s Market just aims to break even. So something as seemingly small as the failed sensor could pose an existential threat.

The legislation “gave me a sense of relief that maybe there is hope,” he said.

Investing in grocery stores

Kathryn Draeger says rural communities need more than just dollar stores and gas stations.

“We need places where you can buy a kiwi, an onion, potato, beets,” she said.

The director of regional sustainable development partnerships at the University of Minnesota, Draeger works with grocery stores across the state. Aside from the health benefits of fresh food, she said, rural stores are key to building more resilient supply chains since they can procure products from a variety of small vendors.

Draeger advocated for a state program to improve healthy food access that began offering grants to rural and urban stores in 2017. Last year, the state agriculture department funded 15 projects at a cost of $426,862 — though nearly five times as much was requested.

“I believe every rural grocery store we lose is at our own peril,” Draeger said. “There’s so much public good in these small private businesses. That is why this public investment in this private sector is really important. “

Draeger recalled one Minnesota grocer who had to choose between fixing her broken front tooth or her store’s leaky roof.

“She chose the roof,” Draeger said. “So she worked at the cash register at the store she owned without a tooth for over a year.”

Just as important as money, though, is leadership, said North Dakota Democratic state Sen. Kathy Hogan. She co-sponsored a new law last year that made $1 million available to help preserve rural grocery stores. That money will only help if communities have strong leaders willing to work together, she said.

“Sometimes people think money is the answer to everything,” she said. “The secret of the success of this is not so much money but local organization.”

Republican state Sen. Janne Myrdal, another co-sponsor, said the legislation was inspired by the work of grocery stores, communities and schools in the northeast corner of the state. After struggling to find vendors willing to make small deliveries to remote areas, three stores formed a cooperative that can demand more inventory and better prices from suppliers — benefiting consumers, schools and businesses.

“As a conservative, I love seeing that happen,” Myrdal said.

The legislation required a local match from organizers and aims to pull multiple retailers and community organizations together to help stabilize deliveries and costs.

“I don’t believe in just handing out money from the government,” Myrdal said. “It has to rise from the bottom up.”

A town missing its ‘centerpiece’

People like to say the town of Malvern, Iowa, punches above its weight.

Though it’s home to fewer than 1,300 people, the town touts miles of bicycle trails, a community garden and public art sculptures. On Main Street: two restaurants, medical clinics, a bank, a pharmacy and even a fitness center.

But a fenced-in gaping hole is an obvious reminder of what’s missing: the town’s staple grocery store, lost in a 2021 fire.

Tom Mulholland was the fourth-generation owner of Mulholland Grocery, which traces its history to the 1870s.

Since the fire, the community has rallied around him. Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, funded a documentary short film about the effort to rebuild the grocery store last year.

But even with an Oscar-winning documentarian as the director and scores of headlines, Mulholland has struggled. He’s faced problems with insurance, finances and construction headaches that set the rebuild back.

When the store was open, it was a hub of activity. People would drive long distances to buy from his meat counter. And in times of crisis, such as a recent flood in the area, customers would hand him cash, knowing he’d get it to the folks who needed it most.

“It’s those little things about being human and caring about your community and others that add up,” he said.

Mulholland, 63, could have walked away from the store. But he said it’s too important to the community — and his family. The morning after the fire, he wrote an apology to his ancestors on Facebook.

In an interview, he said: “My great-grandfather and my grandfather, everybody put in so many decades of sweat and tears and frustration and joy. And on my watch, it disappeared.”

After two years, people around town have grown weary of waiting for a store.

“In here it’s a big topic of conversation,” said Janella May, who owns C&M’s Cafe with her husband.

It’s a Main Street institution known for its ice cream and Cheeseburger Saturdays — $4.99 for a burger and fries. Weekday mornings, the place is home to a coffee klatch — a few older men around town have their own key to get in before the place opens.

“We need it here,” she said of the grocery store. “It’s important.”

Without Mulholland Grocery, Malvern residents must drive 15 minutes to reach another small-town grocery store or a half-hour to reach supermarket chains over near Omaha.

The absence of the grocery store is a sharp contrast to Malvern’s otherwise encouraging trajectory.

Some $40 million worth of new projects are in the works in the town, including public school renovations, a new subdivision and a new early education center.

“We’re a growing town,” said Jay Burdic, the president of Malvern Bank.

The third generation of his family to own the bank, Burdic is bullish on the community’s future.

But every day brings a reminder of what’s missing: His desk overlooks Main Street, directly across from the empty grocery store lot.

“It was the centerpiece of our Main Street,” he said. “And now it’s just a hole in the ground.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Garrison Brown, whose large family is at the center of the long-running TLC reality series “Sister Wives,” has died. He was 25.

His mother Janelle Brown and father Kody Brown posted similar statements to social media Tuesday confirming the news.

“Kody and I are deeply saddened to announce the loss of our beautiful boy Robert Garrison Brown. He was a bright spot in the lives of all who knew him,” Janelle Brown wrote. “His loss will leave such a big hole in our lives that it takes our breath away. We ask that you please respect our privacy and join us in honoring his memory.”

TLC said in a statement that the death of Garrison Brown, who was referred to by his middle name on the series, was a “tragic loss.”

“We extend our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the Brown family at this difficult time,” the statement read.

Sgt. J.L. Rintala, a public information officer for the Flagstaff (Arizona) Police Department, told CNN in a statement that Garrison Brown died of an apparent suicide and was found at his residence.

No foul play is suspected, Rintala added.

Garrison Brown was one of six children shared by Kody and Janelle Brown. They are also parents to Logan, Maddie, Hunter, Gabe and Savanah.

Janelle Brown was Kody Brown’s second wife. They separated in late 2022 after nearly 30 years together.

Kody Brown is currently married to one woman – Robyn Brown, who was the fourth and last wife to join the Brown family.

Throughout its run, “Sister Wives” has explored the lives of both the parental figures and the 18 children in the family.

Garrison Brown’s decision to serve in the Nevada Army National Guard while he was attending college in the state was explored in Season 11 of the series.

Garrison Brown’s first home purchase and his evolving relationships with his siblings and other family members during the pandemic were featured in more recent seasons.

If you or someone you know is struggling with feelings of depression or suicidal thoughts, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free, round-the-clock support, information and resources for help. Call or text the lifeline at 988, or see the 988lifeline.org website, where chat is available.

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NEW YORK — Iris Apfel, a textile expert, interior designer and fashion celebrity known for her eccentric style, has died. She was 102.

Her death was confirmed by her commercial agent, Lori Sale, who called Apfel “extraordinary.” No cause of death was given. It was also announced on her verified Instagram page on Friday, which a day earlier had celebrated that Leap Day represented her 102nd-and-a-half birthday.

Born Aug. 29, 1921, Apfel was famous for her irreverent, eye-catching outfits, mixing haute couture and oversized costume jewelry. A classic Apfel look would, for instance, pair a feather boa with strands of chunky beads, bangles and a jacket decorated with Native American beadwork.

With her big, round, black-rimmed glasses, bright red lipstick and short white hair, she stood out at every fashion show she attended.

Her style was the subject of museum exhibits and a documentary film, “Iris,” directed by Albert Maysles.

“I’m not pretty, and I’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter,” she once said. “I have something much better. I have style.”

Apfel enjoyed late-in-life fame on social media, amassing nearly 3 million followers on Instagram, where her profile declares: “More is more & Less is a Bore.” On TikTok, she drew 215,000 followers as she waxed wise on things fashion and style and promoted recent collaborations.

“Being stylish and being fashionable are two entirely different things,” she said in one TikTok video. “You can easily buy your way into being fashionable. Style, I think is in your DNA. It implies originality and courage.”

She never retired, telling “Today”: “I think retiring at any age is a fate worse than death. Just because a number comes up doesn’t mean you have to stop.”

“Working alongside her was the honor of a lifetime. I will miss her daily calls, always greeted with the familiar question: “What have you got for me today?,” Sale said in a statement. “Testament to her insatiable desire to work. She was a visionary in every sense of the word. She saw the world through a unique lens – one adorned with giant, distinctive spectacles that sat atop her nose.”

Apfel was an expert on textiles and antique fabrics. She and her husband Carl owned a textile manufacturing company, Old World Weavers, and specialized in restoration work, including projects at the White House under six different U.S. presidents. Apfel’s celebrity clients included Estee Lauder and Greta Garbo.

Apfel’s own fame blew up in 2005 when the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City hosted a show about her called “Rara Avis,” Latin for “rare bird.” The museum described her style as “both witty and exuberantly idiosyncratic.

Her originality is typically revealed in her mixing of high and low fashions — Dior haute couture with flea market finds, 19th-century ecclesiastical vestments with Dolce & Gabbana lizard trousers.” The museum said her “layered combinations” defied “aesthetic conventions” and “even at their most extreme and baroque” represented a “boldly graphic modernity.”

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, was one of several museums around the country that hosted a traveling version of the show. Apfel later decided to donate hundreds of pieces to the Peabody — including couture gowns — to help them build what she termed “a fabulous fashion collection.” The Museum of Fashion & Lifestyle near Apfel’s winter home in Palm Beach, Florida, also plans a gallery dedicated to displaying items from Apfel’s collection.

Apfel was born in New York City to Samuel and Sadye Barrel. Her mother owned a boutique.

Apfel’s fame in her later years included appearances in ads for brands like M.A.C. cosmetics and Kate Spade. She also designed a line of accessories and jewelry for Home Shopping Network, collaborated with H&M on a sold-out-in-minutes collection of brightly-colored apparel, jewelry and shoes, put out a makeup line with Ciaté London, an eyeglass collection with Zenni and partnered with Ruggable on floor coverings.

She called herself the “accidental icon,” which became the title of a book she published in 2018 filled with her mementos and style musings. Odes to Apfel are abundant, from a Barbie in her likeness to T-shirts, glasses, artwork and dolls.

Apfel’s husband died in 2015. They had no children.

TORONTO — Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister who forged closer ties with the United States through a sweeping free trade agreement and whose Progressive Conservative party suffered a devastating defeat just after he left office, died Thursday. He was 84.

The country’s 18th prime minister died peacefully and surrounded by family, his daughter Caroline Mulroney said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Mulroney’s family said this past summer that he was improving daily after a heart procedure that followed treatment for prostate cancer in early 2023.

Leader of the Progressive Conservative party from 1983 to 1993, Mulroney served almost a decade as prime minister after he was first elected in 1984 after snagging the largest majority in Canadian history with 211 of 282 seats.

The win would mark Canada’s first Conservative majority government in 26 years. His government was re-elected in 1988.

Mulroney entered the job with massive support, but he left with the lowest approval rating in Canadian history. In the years since, more recent prime ministers sought his advice.

“Brian Mulroney loved Canada. I’m devastated to learn of his passing. He never stopped working for Canadians, and he always sought to make this country an even better place to call home,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

“As we mourn his passing and keep his family and friends in our thoughts, let us also acknowledge – and celebrate – Mr. Mulroney’s role in building the modern, dynamic, and prosperous country we all know today,” Trudeau said.

The man known for his charm and Irish blarney — a gift for the gab — was an ardent advocate of stronger U.S.-Canadian relations. He eulogized two American presidents.

He pushed a free trade deal forward in no small part due to his chumminess with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Few Canadians around during his reign have forgotten the widely broadcast Mulroney-Reagan duet of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” at the Shamrock summit in Quebec City in 1985, named after the pair’s Irish heritage and the fact that the summit fell on St. Patrick’s Day. The 24-hour meeting opened the door to future free trade talks between the countries.

Along with a fan base of fellow conservative Margaret Thatcher, Mulroney can also boast of an enduring friendship with former President George H.W. Bush.

Mulroney delivered a eulogy for Bush’s state funeral.

Mulroney also eulogized Reagan in 2004. Mulroney, Reagan and Bush became friends when they shared the world stage as leaders of their countries during the last decade of the Cold War.

Mulroney’s nine years in power overlapped with Bush’s four.

It was Mulroney’s amiable relationship with his southern counterparts that helped develop the free-trade treaty, a hotly contested pact at the time. The trade deal led to a permanent realignment of the Canadian economy and huge increases in north-south trade.

However, Mulroney’s administration was saddled with scandals and his near decade reign as prime minister came crashing down in 1993 when voters delivered a devastating election defeat to his Progressive Conservative Party, leaving it with just two seats in the 295-member House of Commons. He left shortly before the election result.

The defeat came amid widespread unhappiness over Canada’s then-depressed economy. Canadians blamed Mulroney of failing to address a 3-year-old recession that left a record number of people out of work or bankrupt.

Under his leadership, a much-criticized 7% sales tax was pushed through, as well as the 1988 U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, after more than 100 years of tariff protection. The agreement later included Mexico in 1994, evolving into the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The Quebec-born, half-Irish, “boy from Baie-Comeau” (a small-town in the French-speaking province) leader campaigned hard on the trade agreements following his first term.

But many constituents were opposed to the treaty, concerned that the agreement would jeopardize Canadian sovereignty. Critics blamed the rising unemployment during the late ’80s and early ’90s in Canada on factors such as businesses moving south to escape higher Canadian taxes and labor costs.

Former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper noted that Mulroney was vilified for the free trade deal during his leadership but said that history will remember him as the leader who set Canada on a path to unprecedented economic growth and prosperity.

Mulroney was born March 20, 1939, in Baie-Comeau, an isolated smelting town on Quebec’s North Shore.

Hired as a labor lawyer by Montreal’s largest law firm, Ogilvy Renault, he later became the president of the Iron Ore Company of Canada, a subsidiary of Cleveland-based Hanna Mining.

Mulroney leaves behind wife Mila Mulroney and four children: Caroline, Ben, Mark and Nicolas.

Her family said in a statement released through the Red Sox that she died Wednesday at her Massachusetts home, less than five months after her husband died at the age of 57. Stacy was 53, according to online records.

“She was surrounded by her family and dear friends, as well as her wonderful caretakers and nurses,” the statement said. “The loss is unimaginable, especially in the wake of losing Tim just under five months ago. Our hearts are beyond broken.”

“We will remember Stacy as a strong, loving, thoughtful and kind person, who was as down-to-earth as they come,” the family’s statement continued. “We feel so lucky to have had her in our lives, and we take comfort in the fact that she will be reunited with Tim, the love of her life.”

Stacy and Tim are survived by their children, Trevor and Brianna.

As much as Tim was celebrated for his achievements on the field, both he and Stacy were also regarded in Boston for their work in the community.

Stacy worked alongside her husband in raising money for multiple charitable groups, including the Red Sox Foundation. They also worked with the Jimmy Fund, visiting with patients and raising funds for the childhood cancer charity.

NEW YORK — Richard Lewis, an acclaimed comedian known for exploring his neuroses in frantic, stream-of-consciousness diatribes while dressed in all-black, leading to his nickname “The Prince of Pain,” has died. He was 76.

Lewis, who revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2023, died at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday night after suffering a heart attack, according to his publicist Jeff Abraham.

A regular performer in clubs and on late-night TV for decades, Lewis also played Marty Gold, the romantic co-lead opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, in the ABC series “Anything But Love” and the reliably neurotic Prince John in “Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men In Tights.” He re-introduced himself to a new generation opposite Larry David in HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” kvetching regularly.

“Richard and I were born three days apart in the same hospital and for most of my life he’s been like a brother to me,” David said in a statement. “He had that rare combination of being the funniest person and also the sweetest. But today he made me sob and for that I’ll never forgive him.”

Comedy Central named Lewis one of the top 50 stand-up comedians of all time and he earned a berth in GQ magazine’s list of the “20th Century’s Most Influential Humorists.” He lent his humor for charity causes, including Comic Relief and Comedy Gives Back.

“Watching his stand-up is like sitting in on a very funny and often dark therapy session,” the Los Angeles Times said in 2014. The Philadelphia’s City Paper called him “the Jimi Hendrix of monologists.” Mel Brooks once said he “may just be the Franz Kafka of modern-day comedy.”

Comedians took to social media Wednesday to share their thoughts, including Albert Books who called Lewis “a brilliantly funny man who will missed by all. The world needed him now more than ever” on X, formerly Twitter. Other tributes came from Bette Midler, Michael McKean and Paul Feig, who called Lewis “one of the funniest people on the planet.”

Following his graduation from The Ohio State University in 1969, the New York-born Lewis began a stand-up career, honing his craft on the circuit with other contemporaries also just starting out like Jay Leno, Freddie Prinze and Billy Crystal.

He recalled Rodney Dangerfield hiring him for $75 to fill in at his New York club, Dangerfield’s. “I had a lot of great friends early on who believed in me, and I met pretty iconic people who really helped me, told me to keep working on my material. And I never looked back,” he told The Gazette of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2010.

“I’m paranoid about everything in my life. Even at home. On my stationary bike, I have a rear-view mirror, which I’m not thrilled about,” he once joked onstage. To Jimmy Kimmel he said: “This morning, I tried to go to bed. I couldn’t sleep. I counted sheep but I only had six of them and they all had hip replacements.”

Unlike contemporary Robin Williams, Lewis allowed audiences into his world and melancholy, pouring his torment and pain onto the stage. Fans favorably compared him to the ground-breaking comedian Lenny Bruce.

“I take great pains not to be mean-spirited,” Lewis told The Palm Beach Post in 2007. “I don’t like to take real handicaps that people have to overcome with no hope in sight. I steer clear of that. That’s not funny to me. Tragedy is funny to other humorists, but it’s not to me, unless you can make a point that’s helpful.”

Singer Billy Joel has said he was referring to Lewis when he sang in “My Life” of an old friend who “bought a ticket to the West Coast/Now he gives them a stand-up routine in L.A.”

In 1989 at Carnegie Hall, he appeared with six feet of yellow legal sheets filled with material and taped together for a 2½-hour set that led to two standing ovations. The night was “the highlight of my career,” he told The Washington Post in 2020.

Lewis told GQ his signature look came incidentally, saying his obsession with dressing in black came from watching the television Western “Have Gun – Will Travel,” with a cowboy in all-black, when he was a kid. He also popularized the term “from hell” — as in “the date from hell” or “the job from hell.”

“That just came out of my brain one day and I kept repeating it a lot for some reason. Same thing with the black clothes. I just felt really comfortable from the early ’80s on and I never wore anything else. I never looked back.”

After getting sober from drugs and alcohol in 1994, Lewis put out his 2008 memoir, “The Other Great Depression” — a collection of fearless, essay style riffs on his life — and “Reflections from Hell.”

Lewis was the youngest of three siblings — his brother was older than him by six years, and his sister by nine. His father died young and his mother had emotional problems. “She didn’t get me at all. I owe my career to my mother. I should have given her my agent’s commission,” he told The Washington Post in 2020.

Lewis quickly found a new family performing at New York’s Improv. “I was 23, and all sorts of people were coming in and out and watching me, like Steve Allen and Bette Midler. David Brenner certainly took me under his wing. To drive home to my little dump in New Jersey often knowing that Steve Allen said, ‘You got it,’ that validation kept me going in a big, big way.”

He had a cameo in “Leaving Las Vegas,” which led to his first major dramatic role as Jimmy Epstein, an addict fighting for his life in the indie film, “Drunks.” He played Don Rickles’ son on one season of “Daddy Dearest” and a rabbi on “7th Heaven.”

Lewis’ recurring role on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” can be credited directly to his friendship with fellow comedian, producer and series star Larry David. Both native Brooklynites — born in the same Brooklyn hospital — they first met and became friends as rivals while attending the same summer camp at age 13. He was cast from the beginning, bickering with David on unpaid bills and common courtesies.

He is survived by his wife, Joyce Lapinsky.

“Edie is truly a beloved person of our community and an inspiration to all,” 3rd District Supervisor John Haschak said when the town celebrated her 115th birthday in February of 2023. “She was dancing and living on her own until not too many years ago. She is a living testimony to the quality of life and clean air and water in Willits and Mendocino County.”

Within the past two years, Ceccarelli became not only the oldest living person in California, but the oldest living person in the United States – the only other living person older than her was another woman born in Northern California: Maria Branyas Morera, who now lives in Spain, and will turn 117 on March 4.

However, last Thursday, Ceccarelli died at the Holy Spirit Residential Care Home just two weeks after her 116th birthday.

“I miss her already,” said family member Evelyn Persico on Monday, describing Ceccarelli as having “loved her birthday party” held on Sunday, Feb. 4.

When asked if she thought it was possible that Ceccarelli was hanging on so she could enjoy another birthday, which Willits has been celebrating with parades by her home the past several years, Persico said it was “very possible, and I did wonder that myself.”

The post also explains that “some say to live this long you either need to have good genes or a healthy lifestyle, but in this case, Gerontology experts say you really have to have both.”

As for local services for Ceccarelli, Persico said they are still being planned and that she will provide more details once they are confirmed.