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Composer, arranger and musical director Luther Henderson died this week at age 84 after a long battle with cancer. A lifelong collaborator with Duke Ellington, Henderson also enjoyed a prolific career on Broadway, working on such shows as Ain't Misbehavin', Funny Girl and Do, Re, Mi. Commentator Murray Horwitz has a remembrance.

Any parent who's tried to get a child to eat something nutritious might want Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer in their corner. Their new CD, Bon Appetit! Musical Food Fun, features catchy songs about good eating habits and the importance of exercise despite lifestyles that don't always promote those goals. The Grammy-nominated duo discuss their latest project with NPR's Bob Edwards.

NPR's Paul Brown traces country blues back to its origins among sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta. It's part of "Honky Tonks, Hymns and the Blues," a special 11-part weekly series, airing Fridays on Morning Edition, highlighting the creation of American musical traditions.

Gregory Hines, the greatest tap dancer of his generation, dies of cancer at age 57. He grew from a child star to become a Tony-winning Broadway actor who made numerous appearances in movies and television. NPR's Jacki Lyden reports.

In their day, acts like Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy would keep audiences young and old as transfixed as the biggest stars on television today. It's hard to imagine that ventriloquists and their wooden sidekicks would be such big hits -- on radio. NPR's Bob Edwards talks to the author of a new book about the bygone era of ventriloquism.

HBO is now airing the second season of Project Greenlight, a reality TV show that focuses on aspiring screenwriters and directors who earn a chance to make a movie for Miramax. Winners star in a behind-the-scenes look at the movie business. But what happens to those who miss the cut? NPR's Lynn Neary reports.

Legendary dancer and actor Donald O'Connor dies of heart failure in Calabasas, Calif., at age 78. O'Connor's career began in vaudeville and carried him to Hollywood. He made more than 50 films, including Singin' in the Rain, with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. NPR's Liane Hansen offers a remembrance.

Photographer Frederic Brenner spent 25 years documenting Jewish communities in more than 40 countries on five continents. The results are the subject of an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and a new book, Diaspora: Homelands in Exile. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Brenner about his art and the state of the diaspora.

At his death in 1829, English scientist James Smithson left half a million dollars for the establishment of an institution in Washington, D.C. He'd never set foot in the city -- or in the United States. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Nina Burleigh, author of The Stranger and the Statesman, a new book about the mysterious benefactor of the Smithsonian Institution.

From the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s through the Vietnam War, Martha Gellhorn covered the major conflicts of her day. Best known as the third wife of Ernest Hemingway, Gellhorn was also a pioneer in journalism, telling the story of war in a unique and personal way. NPR's Susan Stamberg reports on a new biography of the writer.