John S. Todd, who was a key figure in the fight for Lakewood cityhood, retired only four years ago as Lakewood's first city attorney. He died in August at 89. The city attorney was 85 in this 2004 photo. (Leo Hetzel / Staff Photographer)

2008 was the final year for dozens of notable people from the Long Beach area.

Only one could call himself a personal friend of the late Frank Sinatra.

Bryan "Whitey" Littlefield died in March of prostate cancer at the age of 75. For 35 years, Littlefield served as general manager of Somerset Distributors, the Anheuser-Busch agency owned by the Chairman of the Board.

Calling Littlefield outspoken would be an understatement. He was strongly opinionated and cursed like, well, a guy who sold beer for a living.

He was tough with those who crossed him, but friends said there was no one more loyal. He gave

John Sanford Todd, who died at age 89 in August of injuries sustained in a fall, was said to have two families: his wife and sons, and the city of Lakewood.

Todd, an attorney, was one of several key figures in Lakewood's early history. He and a group of residents fought against Long Beach's annexation efforts, and their hard work culminated in Lakewood's 1954 incorporation. He would go on to serve as Lakewood's city

Former P-T writer Tedd Thomey was 88.

Lakewood also lost former three-term mayor Jacqueline Rynerson, one of the forces behind incorporation. Rynerson died of a stroke in April. She was 87.

Marty Schuster, a real-estate business owner, Greater Lakewood Chamber of Commerce board member and father of three, hoped that his many runs for the City Council would get him elected. They didn't, though he came close a couple of times before he died in a February accident. He was 46.

Though he died in 1968, the body of Lance Cpl. Luis Palacios was finally returned to his family in Lakewood this year. The 19-year-old Marine was killed on June 6, 1968, when his CH-46A Sea Knight helicopter was hit by enemy fire in Vietnam. His remains were identified, returned and buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress.

Long Beach African-Americans lost community hero Gwen Morris, who died of lung cancer in June at the age of 66. After more than 30 years as a secretary at Boeing, she retired, but soon returned to the work force as a secretary for the Long Beach Job Corps, where she was known as "the mother and the grandmother to many of the young people there."

She was also lifetime member of the NAACP, the National Council of Negro Women and the African-American Chief Advisors of the Long Beach Police Department.

Long Beach lawyer Edison J. Demler worked until age 75 and once headed the local bar association. He died

Bryan Whitey Littlefield was 75.

A Long Beach firefighter who rose to the second-highest rank in the department despite never finishing high school, Arthur "Art" Santavicca served the city of Long Beach for 26 years. He died in April.

The Rev. Richard Edgar, loved to help others, and he was still helping - putting up the Christmas tree at Leisure World Community Church in Seal Beach - when he suffered a heart attack in November. He died in December after 60 years as a minister, many of them at Silverado United Methodist Church. He was 81.

Another spiritual leader, Rabbi Wolli Kaelter, a former senior rabbi at Temple Israel in Long Beach, died in January at age 93.

Literary and cultural critic John Leonard, died at age 69 in November.

The Press-Telegram lost a writer of its own, former restaurant editor Tedd Thomey. He died Dec. 1 at age 88.

Landscape architect Edward Lovell designed the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden at Cal State Long Beach. He died in April at 89.

Downey community volunteer Lenore Florence Pohl accumulated 34,566 hours of volunteer work at the city hospital before dying in November. She was 88.

Former Long Beach Unified Principal Jackie Dodge died in July at age 80. Dodge was a principal at Gompers, Longfellow and Fremont elementary schools. She retired in 1997.

A younger, but equally loved educator, Tony Carbone taught at Lee Elementary School in the LBUSD. Carbone died in March of melanoma. He was 34.

Retired Long Beach Police Lt. Harold "Harry" Welch died April 1 at the age of 90. He served 33 years.

Retired LBPD Officer Frank "Cats" Castillo died in February. He retired in 1988 after serving 40 years. He was 82.

When Howard Thomas Hargrove saw fellow veterans living on the street, he used his position on several city boards to help successfully convert a former Naval housing complex in West Long Beach into Villages at Cabrillo, which today serves more than 1,000 homeless vets and others. He died in March. He was 79.

In Compton, the city mourned the loss of Douglas Fairbanks Dollarhide, who was first elected to the Compton City Council in 1963 and to the mayor's post in 1969. He died in June at age 85.

Diplomat Charles A. Gillespie III, a Long Beach native who opened the first American embassy in Grenada and served as an ambassador to Columbia and Chile, died in March. He was 72.

Another man who felt the call to serve the federal government was Byron Albert Morgan. As a writer, director and producer, he filmed dozens of documentaries for NASA and helped promote the U.S. manned space program. Morgan, who was also a World War II veteran, died Feb. 13. He was 87.

Though he was internationally famous, Paul Newman had a strong connection with Long Beach. The actor's racing team competed at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, and he was a fixture on the circuit.

Like Newman, Bo Diddley had close ties to the city, performing at the Long Beach Blues Festival. He died of a stroke in June at age 79.

A man who brought nationally known entertainers to his downtown Long Beach venue, Vault 350, Mitchell Stewart died of heart failure in May. He was 48.