Student Work – Nicholas Bett and Marie Severin

Nicholas Bett by Stacy Singh

Nicholas Bett image from Wikipedia

Nicholas Bett

Stacy Singh

On August 8, 2018 Kenya mourned the loss of Olympic athlete, Nicholas Kiplagat Bett. Bett succumbed to his injuries following a tragic car crash the same day. Nicholas Bett was killed in Nandi County as he lost control of his vehicle and landed in a ditch. He was the only person driving in the car and he died on the spot. He was just twenty-eight years old. The athlete has left behind his first wife, three children, second wife, and his twin brother Haron Koech who is also a hurdler.

 

Kenyan athlete, Nicholas Bett was born on January 27, 1990 in the Uasin Gishu County of Kenya. Bett initially played volleyball in his youth, but he went on to pursue a career in running track and he became one of Kenya’s most famous track and field athletes. He suffered a foot injury in 2014 but the pain never slowed him down. He gained recognition in 2015 after winning the 400-meter hurdles world championship scoring a record of 47.79 seconds which was the fastest in that year. While there is no information on Bett’s net worth, it is reported that Kenya’s runners account for 35% of the real estate business.

 

Bett’s personal life was tangled in a bit of controversy as he was rumored to be in a relationship with another woman. A woman by the name of Brenda Cheruto claims to be the mother of Bett’s third child and she also claims to be his second wife. Nicholas Bett was also legally married to a woman by the name of Gladys Bett and together they have twins. His death stirred up problems between the two women as Brenda Cheruto was banned by Nicholas Bett’s family from attending his funeral. Cheruto even accused Bett’s first wife of stealing her eulogy that she claims she wrote first. Currently, there is no information about Bett’s will or family inheritance. Bett did own a Simat home in Uasin Gishu where his burial took place.

Sources:

Jack De Menezes, Nicholas Bett death: 400m hurdles World Champion dies in road accident, aged 28, Independent (Aug. 8, 2018, 9:18 PM),

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/nicholas-bett-dead-road-accident-crash-beijing-2015-400m-hurdle-worlkd-champion-dies-family-a8482056.html

 

Citizen Team, Nicholas Bett: Facts about fallen Kenyan hero, Citizen Digital (Aug. 8, 2018),

https://citizentv.co.ke/sports/nicholas-bett-fact-file-209117/.

 

Kahawa Tungu, Family of Nicholas Bett Blocks Woman Claiming to be His Wife from Burying Him, tech (Aug.12, 2018), https://www.kahawatungo.com/2018/08/12/nicholas-bett-brenda-bett-atlehete/

 

Phoebe Cooke, what was Nicholas Bett’s cause of death, how old was the Kenyan athlete and where was the car crash? The Sun (Aug.8, 2018, 8:33 AM),

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/6966847/nicholas-bett-cause-of-death-kenyan-athlete-car-crash/

 

Marie Severin by Rachel Hogan

Image from Wikipedia

 

 

Marie Severin, born August 21, 1929, was well known for being a comic book artist and colorist for Marvel Comics beginning in the 1950s. She was very influential to women worldwide, as she is responsible for assisting in the production of many famous Marvel Comic characters, including Doctor Strange, The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Woman. Severin worked for Marvel Comics at a time when it was rare for women to work in such fields. She passed away on August 30, 2018 at age 89, due to complications from a hemorrhagic stroke. At the time of her death, Severin was under hospice care in Massapequa, New York. She left behind no surviving family members.

Severin began her career working alongside her brother, John, as a colorist for EC Comics in 1949. After her brother moved on to start his career at Mad Magazine in the 1950s, Severin then began to work for Marvel Comics, known as Atlas Comics during that time. Severin worked alongside Marvel executive producer and editor-in-chief Stan Lee. It was not commonly known that Severin was the one responsible for many of the Marvel comic book covers during the 1960s and ‘70s. Being one of only a handful of women working in that industry at that time, it’s no coincidence that Severin was not often credited for her creativity and hard work. A staggering statistic that further proves this is her net worth being $3 million, compared to Stan Lee’s net worth of $50 million. In addition to working for Marvel Comics, Severin worked in the late 1960s creating and editing Marvel comic parodies for a section in Mad Magazine. Some of these parodies included The Silver Burper (The Silver Surfer in Marvel), and The Inedible Bulk (The Incredible Hulk in Marvel).

There is no public knowledge or information on Marie Severin’s will, if one was ever executed. She left behind no surviving family members, as her brother John, her only sibling, had passed away in 2012. Severin lived a very humble life; she owned her family house in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and lived their almost her entire life before being moved into hospice care. There is no public information on any assets left behind. The only thing Severin appears to have left behind is her quiet legacy.

Works Cited:

Slotnik, Daniel, Marie Severin, Versatile Comic Book Artist, Dies at 89, The New York Times Obituaries (September 6, 2018 3:19 PM) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/obituaries/marie-severin-versatile-comic-book-artist-dies-at-89.html

Schudel, Matt, Marie Severin, versatile Hall of Fame Comic-Book Illustrator, Dies at 89, The Washington Post (September 6, 2018 3:02 PM) https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/marie-severin-versatile-hall-of-fame-comic-book-illustrator-dies-at-89/2018/08/30/5ab73fa2-ac6b-11e8-b1da-ff7faa680710_story.html?utm_term=.71242f77f881