Elizabeth Ann Hawley, 94, an American journalist who chronicled Mount Everest expeditions for more than 50 years and whose attention to detail and sharp sense of humor inspired fear and respect among climbers, died Friday in Kathmandu.

One of the founders of the Himalayan Database, a compilation of records for all climbing expeditions in the Himalayas in Nepal from 1905 to 2017, Hawley spent nearly her entire adult life in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. She moved there in 1960 to work as a correspondent with Time Inc.

Though she never scaled a mountain herself, she endeared herself to many climbers. To maintain accuracy, she grilled mountaineers before and after summit attempts, traveling to their hotels to ask what they had seen at the top and to catch the occasional fibber. She conducted more than 15,000 interviews.

Climbers nicknamed her the "living archive" and the "Sherlock Holmes of the mountaineering world." Hawley was born on Nov. 9, 1923, in Chicago.

Marlene VerPlanck, 84, a singer who was seen by many on cabaret stages and heard by millions more on jingles for products including Campbell's Soup and Winston cigarettes, died Jan. 14 in Manhattan.

VerPlanck began as a big-band singer and later became well known on the cabaret circuit, especially in New York, bringing a clear and disciplined voice to jazz and the American songbook. John S. Wilson, writing in the New York Times in 1980, said she "may be the most accomplished interpreter of popular material performing today."

She was working until a month before her death; her last appearance was in mid-December at Mezzrow in Greenwich Village. Her numerous albums included, most recently, "The Mood I'm In," released in 2016.

VerPlanck's jingle work complemented her cabaret and recording career, giving her the ability to get the most out of each word and to work efficiently.

Marlene Pampinella was born on Nov. 11, 1933, in Newark, N.J.

Bob Smith, 59, who is widely regarded as the first openly gay comic to perform on "The Tonight Show," and who went on to write fiction and nonfiction books full of heart and humor, died on Jan. 20 at his home in Manhattan.

The cause was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, diagnosed more than a decade ago.

Smith's humor was gentle but smart, even when navigating the subject of his sexuality during a time when mainstream audiences were not accustomed to such material.

"I think what I bring to stand-up comedy," he said in "We're Funny That Way," a 1998 documentary, "is a point of view of a gay man that isn't the victim, isn't the butt of the joke; I'm making the joke."

Robert Smith was born on Dec. 24, 1958, in Buffalo, N.Y. He had a joke about his birth date: "People with December birthdays now know from years of experience what the three wise men said when they delivered their gifts — 'These are for both your birthday and Christmas.'"

New York Times