June Allyson

I woke up this morning, flicked on the computer, armed with my coffee, and I saw that June Allyson, aged 80-something, had died.

Normally in this situation I make a joke about how the article stated "Friends and family were shocked at the untimely death of the movie star". To which I would crack, "I too was shocked. I thought she had been dead for decades".

But not in this case, because I have no idea who she is beyond the name. I Couldn't place her face, and never saw any of her movies, yet here she was on the front page of MSN.com, nearly every paper I saw, and I even understand she got a 15 second epitaph on the evening news last night. So I started thinking...

What qualifies a person for front page or national attention when they die? Should a guy who spent 2 seasons as the 5th supporting actor in the sitcom "Barney Miller" get top billing other than in an LA based newspaper? I don't believe he should, but I thought I'd ask you.

Now, understand the criteria for death is old age - natural causes. If Kelley Clarkson is murdered by a guy that they find in his apartment wearing a clown suit, watching porn flicks, and drinking his own urine through a curly straw, that's front page stuff. But if she dies 50 years from now in some town in Iowa, should my great-grandchildren's children have to google her name to find out who the hell she is because they saw her on the news?

And so I ask you out there. Here is a list of names. When they die - like I said of old age and natural causes - are they:

A) National News
B) Local News
C) Local News, back page

Hint: If you don't know who they are, they're damn sure nothing better than B or C, but I would be willing to bet everyone on this list will be grouped in A, and get national exposure.

Max Baer
Larry Bird
Taylor Hicks
Bronson Pinchot
Bob Denver
Alan Hale
Joe Theisman
Carl Yaztrezemski
Linda Lavin
Victor Sen Yung

Ok....just a few names of people that I know that are moderately famous in one way or another. But who gets what as far as final recognition goes?