By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — From the big screen to the playing field, we bid a final goodbye to several notable New Yorkers in 2010.
Among the most notable of those who passed on this year was Elaine Kaufman, the legendary restaurateur who was adored by a slew of actors, writers and workers throughout Manhattan.
Elaine, who was a favorite of celebrities ranging from Frank Sinatra to Tennessee Williams, Hunter S. Thompson and Woody Allen, and who frequently recounted stories of impromptu musical performances and quirky nights in the restaurant, died Dec. 3rd at the age of 81.
The restaurateur passed away after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, according to several reports, but her memory will be maintained at the famous Upper East Side watering hole.
"Elaine was greatly loved by me and her entire staff. It was an honor and a privilege to have worked with her — one of New York City's greatest personalities — for 26 years," Elaine's manager, Diane Becker, told the New York Post. "Most of all, it was a lot of fun."
Elaine wasn't the only stage-loving New York icon to die this year — Broadway actress Lena Horne, New Yorker and movie star Tony Curtis, and Joseph Stein, the writer famous for making "Fiddler on The Roof" into a Broadway show, also passed away.
Lena Horne, the singer and actress who got her start in Harlem and broke down racial barriers in Hollywood, died at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in May.
Horne, who was born in Brooklyn, got her start in show business performing at the Cotton Club in Harlem when she was 16. Her big break came when she was hired in 1941 by NBC as a featured singer on a jazz series.
Tony Curtis, the Bronx-born star who died in September of cardiac arrest at the age of 85, was so huge a star in the 50s and 60s that the high points of his screen career — from his hilarious turn as a female impersonator in "Some Like It Hot" to his critically acclaimed role in "The Defiant Ones" — have become permanent fixtures of American culture.
"Fiddler on the Roof" composer Jerry Bock and playwright Jerry Stein also died within a week of each other in November, but their work is preserved in one of the most memorable scores in American musical history.
The New York sports sphere also suffered numerable losses, with deaths occurring in the sporting families of the New York Yankees, the Mets, the Jets and the Giants.
They say death occurs in threes, and that rule sadly rang true for Yankees fans in 2010 with the deaths of owner George Steinbrenner, public address announcer Bob Sheppard and former manager Ralph Houk, who all died within two weeks of each other.
Yankees owner Steinbrenner, known to everyone simply as "The Boss," suffered a massive heart attack and died in July after being rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital near his home in Tampa, Fla.
"He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports," Steinbrenner's family said in a statement. "He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again."
Also in July, legendary Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard died at the age of 99. Sheppard, who worked at Yankee Stadium until 2007, was named "The Voice of God" by player Reggie Jackson and had been adored by fans since he introduced Joe DiMaggio back in the 1950s.
Ralph Houk, known to the Yankee family as "The Major" because of time served in the Army during World War II, managed the star-studded team in the early 1960’s and saw them through two World Series Championships. He died at age 90 from natural causes.
New Yorks other major baseball team, the Mets, also suffered a loss when popular latino pitcher Jose Lima, who worked for them in 2006, died of a heart attack at the age of 38. And nostalgic baseball fans mourned when Bobby Thompson, the man who hit one of the most famous runs in history during a New York Giants baseball game, nicknamed "The Shot Heard 'Round The World," died in August.
Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson, the 30-year-old daughter to Jets owner Woody Johnson and friends to socialite Paris Hilton, died in January. Johnson was a diabetic with drinking and drug problems who had twice lapsted into comas in the time before her death. Johnson, who left behind a daughter, was found dead while alone in her West Hollywood homer. While father Woody Johnson was reportedly concerned over his daughter's drug use, the death was ruled to be diabetes-related.
Memorable deaths of a darker nature also occurred in Manhattan in 2010, including the suicide of Mark Madoff and the murder of Sylvie Cachay.
Mark Madoff, the son of Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, died on the two-year anniversary of his father's arrest. Madoff hanged himself in his SoHo apartment, devastating his wife and leaving behind two small children.
Finally, up-and-coming fashion designer Sylvie Cachay was found dead while partially clothed in a bathtub in the SoHo house in early December. Her death was officially ruled a murder, and suspect Nicholas Brooks, her former boyfriend who was sharing the hotel room with her, has been charged with attempted murder and strangulation.
