HONOLULU (AP) – Margaret Awamura Inouye, wife of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, died Monday of complications resulting from colon cancer, the senator said. She was 81.

“It was a most special blessing to have had Maggie in my life for 58 years,” the Democratic senator said in a statement.

“She was my inspiration, and all that I have accomplished could not have been done without her at my side. We were a team.”

She worked for the Department of the Navy in Washington from 1950-1952 while her husband attended George Washington University law school.

The wife of Hawaii’s senior senator died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

She shunned the public spotlight during most of her husband’s long political career.

He said her vibrant campaigning on his behalf during his first race for the U.S. Senate in 1962 was the key to his victory.

Daniel Inouye, 81, is the third most senior member in the U.S. Senate. He is serving his eighth term.

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Joe Agrella

CHICAGO (AP) – Joe Agrella, a handicapper and horse racing writer who spent more than 40 years at the Chicago Sun-Times and its predecessor newspapers, died Saturday. He was 93.

Agrella died at his home in suburban Elmwood Park, family members said.

Although Agrella made it a personal rule never to bet on a horse himself, he advised several generations of readers on the art of picking winners under both his own byline and his pen name of Bud Doble.

As a reporter, Agrella covered many sports, but soon became a racing specialist. He covered Chicago’s thoroughbred tracks on a daily basis, rarely missed a Kentucky Derby and frequently covered the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

Agrella retired from the Sun-Times in 1978, but continued writing and handicapping for a national turf magazine until 1994. He also worked as a Chicago racing stringer for The Associated Press.

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Jimmy Johnstone

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) – Jimmy Johnstone, the Scottish soccer star who played for Celtic when in 1967 it became the first British team to win the European Cup, died Monday. He was 61.

Johnstone, who became an active campaigner for stem cell research after being diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 2001, died at his home in Lanarkshire.

“He fought motor neuron disease with great courage,” said Tommy Gemmell, his European Cup-winning teammate. “He was deteriorating physically, but he’s at peace now. He had the heart of a lion and the ability of a maestro.

Johnstone won nine straight Scottish league titles with Celtic from 1965-73. He scored 130 goals in 498 games and helped Celtic win four Scottish Cups and five League Cups. He had four goals in his 23 appearances for Scotland’s national team.

Only 5-foot-4 and 133 pounds, Johnstone was a winger known for his dribbling. He played for Celtic when it came from a goal down to defeat Inter Milan 2-1 in the 1967 European Cup final in Portugal.

Johnstone also played for the San Jose Earthquakes, Sheffield United, Dundee, Shelbourne and Elgin City.

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Andrall E. Pearson

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Andrall E. Pearson, who was the founding chairman of the parent company of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell, died Saturday after suffering a heart attack at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., the company said Monday. He was 80.

Pearson was president of PepsiCo and became founding chairman of Tricon Global Restaurants Inc. when it spun off from PepsiCo Inc. in 1997. After the acquisition of Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Food Restaurants in 2002, Tricon changed its name to Yum Brands Inc.

He was chairman and CEO of the company until 2000, when vice chairman and president David Novak became chairman and CEO. Pearson remained on Yum’s board, and was scheduled to step down in May, the company said in a statement.

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Maureen Stapleton

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – Maureen Stapleton, an Oscar-winning character actress whose subtle vulnerability and down-to-earth toughness earned her dramatic and comedic roles on stage, screen, and television, died Monday. She was 80.

The longtime smoker died from chronic pulmonary disease in Lenox, where she had been living, said her son, Daniel Allentuck.

Stapleton, whose unremarkable, matronly appearance belied her star personality and talent, won an Academy Award for her supporting role as anarchist-writer Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty’s 1981 film, “Reds,” about a left-wing American journalist who journeys to Russia to cover the Bolshevik Revolution.

She was nominated several times for a supporting actress Oscar, including for her first film role in 1958’s “Lonelyhearts”; “Airport” in 1970; and Woody Allen’s “Interiors” in 1978.

In television, she earned an Emmy for “Among the Paths to Eden” in 1967. She was nominated for “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom” in 1975; “The Gathering” in 1977; and “Miss Rose White” in 1992.

At age 24, she became a success as Serafina Delle Rose in Tennessee Williams’ Broadway hit “The Rose Tattoo,” and won a Tony Award. She appeared in numerous other stage productions, including Lillian Hellman’s “Toys in the Attic” and Neil Simon’s “The Gingerbread Lady,” for which she won her second Tony in 1971.

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Delbert E. Wong

GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) – Judge Delbert E. Wong, the first Chinese American appointed to the bench in the continental United States, died Friday. He was 85.

Wong died at Glendale Memorial Hospital of complications following a heart attack, said Kent Wong, his son.

A World War II veteran, Delbert Wong graduated from Stanford Law School in 1949. Then-Gov. Pat Brown appointed him to the Los Angeles Municipal Court bench in 1959.

Two years later, Brown elevated Wong to the Superior Court, where he served for more than 20 years.

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