People we say goodbye to in 2021

Lee Elder, who broke down racial barriers as the first Black golfer to play in the Masters and paved the way for Tiger Woods and others to follow, has died at the age of 87.

The PGA Tour announced Elder's death Monday. No cause or details were immediately available, but the tour said it confirmed Elder's death with his family.

He had been in poor health and wore an oxygen tube beneath his nose when he appeared at the opening of the Masters in April. The tour said he died early Sunday in Escondido, California.

"Lee was a good player, but most important, a good man who was very well respected by countless people,'' Jack Nicklaus wrote on his Twitter account. "The game of golf lost a hero in Lee Elder.''

Elder got into golf as a caddie, since that essentially was the only conduit Black people had to be permitted on the course. He was able to polish his game while serving in the Army and, after his discharge, joined the United Golf Association Tour for Black players in the early 1960s.

He developed into one of the UGA's best players, but meager prize money made it tough to earn a living. Finally, at 33, Elder was able to afford PGA qualifying school, where he earned his first tour card for the 1968 season.

The highlight of his rookie year was a memorable loss to Nicklaus on the fifth hole of a sudden-death playoff at the American Golf Classic.

Elder would go on to capture four PGA Tour victories and eight more wins on the PGA Tour Champions for 50-and-over players. He played in all four major championships, tying for 11th at both the 1974 PGA Championship and the 1979 U.S. Open. His best finish at the Masters was a tie for 17th, also in 1979.

Dole, the former Kansas senator, was a World War II veteran who lost the use of his right arm on the battlefield in Italy. As former national chairman of the World War II Memorial Commission, he helped raise nearly $200 million for a WWII memorial on the National Mall, which was completed in 2004.

Dole was the Republican Party's 1996 presidential nominee and had a political career spanning nearly four decades. Former President Bill Clinton presented Dole with the Presidential Medal of Freedom months after winning the election against him.

Monkees singer and guitarist Michael Nesmith, a pop visionary who penned many of the group’s most enduring songs before laying the groundwork for country rock with the First National Band in the early Seventies, died Friday from natural causes. He was 78.

“With Infinite Love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” his family said in a statement. “We ask that you respect our privacy at this time and we thank you for the love and light that all of you have shown him and us.”

Nesmith was known as the Monkee in the green wool hat with the thick Texas drawl, and the writer of songs like “Mary, Mary,” “Circle Sky,” “Listen to the Band,” and “The Girl I Knew Somewhere.” But he raged behind the scenes that the group didn’t have creative control of its albums, and in 1967 led the successful rebellion against record producer Don Kirshner. The group would subsequently release Headquarters and other albums created largely on its own.

Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and legendary broadcaster John Madden died unexpectedly on Tuesday morning, the league announced. He was 85 years old.

"On behalf of the entire NFL family, we extend our condolences to Virginia, Mike, Joe and their families," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "We all know him as the Hall of Fame coach of the Oakland Raiders and broadcaster who worked for every major network, but more than anything, he was a devoted husband, father and grandfather.

With hair mussed, the self-deprecating Madden had the persona of your friendly neighborhood bartender. He focused on nuance and the guts of the game — he gave rare props to offensive linemen — had wild fun drawing with a telestrator, exclaimed “Boom!” “Whap!” and “Doink!” when describing the action and extolled the virtues of turducken on Thanksgiving Day.