List of Famous people who died in 2017

Lois Ann Dickson Fitt Rice was an American corporate executive, scholar, and education policy expert. Known as the ‘‘mother of the Pell Grant” because of her work lobbying for its creation, she was national vice president of the College Board from 1973 until 1981. According to the Wall Street Journal, she was “among the first wave of African-American women serving on boards of major US corporations,” and under president Bill Clinton, she was a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board. For years, she was an economic studies expert at the Brookings Institution concentrating on education policy.

Doris Leon "D. L." Menard was an American songwriter, performer, and recording artist in contemporary Cajun music. He was called the "Cajun Hank Williams".

Günter Siebert was a German footballer who played as a forward.

Sam Beazley was a British actor.

Bob Glidden was an American drag racer. He was retired from Pro Stock racing in 1997 and returned in 2010. Glidden retired as the driver with the most wins in National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) history at that time — a feat recently topped by 16-time Funny Car champion John Force — and he was the third-most successful drag racer of the professional class drivers — sixth when counting sportsman national event winners — at the time of his death. Glidden won 85 NHRA National Events. In the Professional classes, he was behind Force (147) and Warren Johnson (97). Currently, Glidden ranks fourth behind Greg Anderson (90). Glidden's ten Pro Stock championships included five in a row beginning in 1985. Among his numerous accomplishments, Glidden won nine straight NHRA national races in 1979 and was the No. 1 qualifier 23 times in a row, including the entire 1987 season. At one point, he won 50 eliminations rounds in a row.

Stephen Howard "Snapper" Jones was an American basketball player in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA), who later become a television analyst. He was a three-time ABA All-Star. Jones' brother Nick also played in the ABA and NBA. During his time in the ABA, Jones picked up the moniker "Snapper" but he never revealed how it came to be.

Mary Tsoni was a Greek actress and singer. She was best known for her roles in the films Evil (2005), Dogtooth and Evil: In the Time of Heroes. For her role in Dogtooth, she won the award for Best Actress at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and the motion picture itself was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Katie Lee was an American folk singer, actress, writer, photographer and environmental activist.

Dorothy Bryant (1930–2017) was an American novelist, playwright, essayist and feminist writer.

Albert Glenn Barr OBE was a politician from Derry, Northern Ireland, who was an advocate of Ulster nationalism. For a time during the 1970s he straddled both Unionism and Loyalism due to simultaneously holding important positions in the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party and the Ulster Defence Association.