Len Richmond, 70, the whole of him dwarfed the sum of his parts

Len embraced his fascinating life as a compulsive buffet of smells and tastes, escapades and thrills, convictions and neuroses - once earning him the description of being "rather like a narcotic Tigger." He was hilarious, charming, fearless, brilliant, generous, loving, thoughtful, sweet, soulful, giving, entitled, demanding, intense, obsessive, self-centered and utterly exasperating. But Len never permitted his life to be lived on anything short of his own terms. At the end of the day, that's more than most of us ever get.

Sue Sheeler, lived loud up to the end

The gnarled branches of a massive oak tree nearly scrape the roof outside Sue Sheeler's bedroom where the limbs hang low, visible from nearly every window. During construction of the home in 1984, builders suggested she remove the tree - they weren't sure how much longer it would live, they said, and uprooting it would make construction easier. No, she told them. No trees will be cut down. Build the house around them. Over the next decade the tree shaded her family as both expanded. Her children grew into adults under its thick branches. Its deep-grooved bark soon absorbed the laughs of her grandchildren.

John E. Holden, alias Jack, took the Deep Six

Jack was widowed ten years ago after sixty-one years of marriage to Elaine Ewing Holden. He has had a number of other wives recently, none of which were his.