Nancy

Nancy Marie Haragan, founding executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, died Sunday of metastatic melanoma at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Canton resident was 60. "Reflecting on all she's done for the arts community made me realize how transformative Nancy was. She was able to bring the arts community together in a collaborative effort and get them to sit around the same table," said Doreen Bolger, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art and a longtime friend.

Nancy Pelosi's recent statement that the minuscule decrease in unemployment rate was "good" was almost as outrageous as her statement when the President Obama's health care reform bill passed. Remember? Now we can find out what's in it? How will we ever recover from the mess we're in with that kind of mediocre mentality, and worse yet, leadership? It also squares up with those same types who cannot see the logic in balancing your checkbook and then taking the necessary, responsible actions.

For the better part of a decade, Sister Nancy Murray has been performing onstage throughout the world in a one-woman play that tells the story of St. Catherine of Siena, a 14th-century Italian teenager who was instrumental in restoring the papacy to Rome and who remains, more than half a millennium after her death, one of her country's most prolific authors. And yet, it's hardly a role as a saint that piques people's curiosity most about Sister Nancy, at least at first blush. Saints are one thing, but what people really want to hear about is her brother Bill - Bill Murray, "Saturday Night Live" alumnus, Oscar-nominated actor, the guy who whispered something into Scarlett Johansson's ear in the movie "Lost in Translation" that people are still trying to figure out. Sister Nancy, speaking over the phone from her order's headquarters in southern Michigan, offers an easy laugh and a welcoming conversational style.

Nancy L. Gould, a Bible study teacher who aided in the development of a Washington County home for mentally and physically challenged adults, died Oct. 2 in her sleep of unknown causes at Homewood Suites, a Hagerstown hotel. The Severna Park resident was 72. "We were in Hagerstown for a volunteer fundraiser for Star Community," at the time of her death, said her husband of 49 years, Dr. William Michael Gould III, a dermatologist who is a member of the home's board. The daughter of the former CEO of Augusta Federal Savings & Loan and a homemaker, Nancy Luette Engroff was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville and Towson.

Nancy Z. Fleming, a former educator and homemaker who participated in a University of Maryland Alzheimer disease study, died Sept. 14 of the disease at Emeritus Towson Assisted Living. The longtime Towson resident was 73. The daughter of a banker and a homemaker, the former Nancy Zolzer was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. After graduating from St. Agnes High School, she earned a bachelor's degree in 1956 from Dumbarton College in Washington, which is now part of Howard University.

Nancy M. "Nanny" Wylie, a retired housekeeper and caterer who enjoyed cooking for family and friends, died Aug. 30 in her sleep at her Gwynn Oak home. She was 96. The daughter of farmers, she was born Nancy Mayfield and raised in Chester, S.C., where she attended Chester County public schools. After her mother's death, she left school to care for her father and younger sisters. "She picked cotton, cooked, and took care of the housekeeping chores and finances for the home," said a daughter, Martina Wylie Clinton of Randallstown.

I am too tired to go crazy about this. And there really are so many hugely more important things going on the world practically every day. But ... I cannot let the addition of HLN host Nancy Grace to the lineup of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" pass without comment. It is such an exquisite example of how calculating and exploitative prime-time network TV can be. Here is what I find debased about the selection of Grace: She probably got the job and the $500,000 that goes with it because she decided on her own that Casey Anthony was guilty and then, ignoring any sense of respect for the judicial system or fair play, pounded away on Anthony's alleged guilt day and night.