obituary

“Auld lang syne” will be sung this year for notables from the worlds of sports, politics, activism and entertainment. The Bay State Banner has chosen a dozen figures, six of local renown, to represent the passage of meaningful lives in 2023.

Rafer Johnson, the world decathlon champion who carried the Stars and Stripes at the opening of the 1960 Rome Olympics and became a lifelong Kennedy family friend and Special Olympics ambassador, died at age 86 on Dec. 2 at his home in Los Angeles.