Betty Cunningham passed away

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

We are very sad to report that Betty Cunningham, a long-time and frequent 
contributor to the Dinosaur and VrtPaleo mailing lists, died suddenly on 
Monday morning.  The exact cause of death has not yet been determined, but 
apparently she suffered a heart attack.  A memorial service is being planned 
for next week in San Mateo County, California.

Most of you are probably familiar with the PALEONEWS messages that Betty sent 
out.  Recently she took steps to make PALEONEWS a more formal entity, and it 
is clear from one of her web pages:  http://www.paleonews.org/ that she had 
high hopes for it.  It appears from the guidelines she spelled out that part 
of her motivation sprang from a desire to fill gaps in the paleontological 
coverage allowed on other fora -  particularly the dinosaur list which we 
run.  We applaud that effort and believe that it would be a fitting tribute 
to Betty if someone else were to grab the reins and build PALEONEWS into the 
discussion group Betty desired for it to become.

Our best wishes and sympathy go to Betty's family.  Our access to her 
wide-ranging knowledge, artistic talents and most of all her spunky humor 
will be greatly missed.

Mary Kirkaldy - mkirkaldy@aol.com
Mickey Rowe - rowe@psych.ucsb.edu