John Dennis Ursu believed a quick wit and sense of humor could lighten almost any situation. (Today)

Dr. Cynthia Ayers, a trailblazing Pittsburgh physician who broke down barriers of race and gender in the medical profession and in 2007 became the first woman to receive the Physician of the Year Award from Gateway Medical Society, died Wednesday. She was 67. (Yesterday)

Nien Cheng, whose memoir "Life and Death in Shanghai" was widely praised as one of the most riveting accounts of the Cultural Revolution, died Monday of cardiovascular and renal disease at her home in Washington, D.C. She was 94. (Yesterday)

John Mashek, a Washington, D.C., fixture who covered every president since John F. Kennedy and enjoyed a front-row seat in the pageant called the American Century, died Tuesday. He was 77. (11/05/2009)

Regina M. Matta, who patched up D-Day survivors as a World War II Army nurse and later ran Route 8's venerable Venus Diner with her husband, died Thursday at the Elmcroft of Saxonburg assisted-living center. (11/03/2009)