"When and if the end comes, no one will approach it better than you," said Larry King to Tammy Faye Messner during a live television interview Thursday night.

Friday morning, the end arrived -- Tammy Faye lost her long and courageous battle with inoperable cancer. She was 65.

A Christian singer, evangelist, entrepreneur, talk show host, reality show star, and former wife of disgraced televengalist Jim Bakker, Tammy Faye was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996. She defied all medical predictions after her disease spread to her lungs in 2004, and she lived on with an inspiring amount of grace and dignity. Weighing only 65 pounds and battling almost constant pain, she spoke with Larry King just days ago -- with both her trademark make-up and a smile on her face -- and she talked openly and candidly about her death. She didn't know when her time would come. But she was ready.

The end has come for Tammy Faye. Surely, no one approached it quite like her.

Patrick Wayne, son of late actor John Wayne, says Larry King has true grit. And that's why the CNN talk show host will receive the True Grit Award next month, an honor that hails from the John Wayne Cancer Institute.

King, 73, will receive his honor at the annual Odyssey Ball on April 14 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Jamie Lee Curtis will host the event that will commemorate the centennial of John Wayne's birth.

The Odyssey Ball began 22 years ago and has helped raise more the $14 million to support the John Wayne Cancer Institute's research and treatment programs.

"Larry King epitomizes the strengths and qualities that characterized my father, and for which the True Grit Award was created," said Wayne, who serves as chairman of the board at the institute, located at the Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica.

Founded by the Wayne family in 1981, the institute honors John Wayne who died of stomach cancer in 1979.

Angelina Jolie, who told CNN host Larry King on December 18 that her 56-year-old mother was battling ovarian cancer, is now confirming that her mother passed away on Saturday afternoon.

According to a new release, Angelina Jolie and brother James Haven were with their mom, actress Marcheline Bertrand, when she died this weekend at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. It is reported that Jolie's boyfriend, Brad Pitt, was at the hospital with Jolie and her brother.

Bertrand, divorced from Jolie's Oscar-winning actor father Jon Voight and primary caretaker of her children, had small roles in the movies Lookin' to Get Out in 1982 and The Man Who Loved Women in 1983.

A private funeral is planned -- and the family asks that donations be made to the Women's Cancer Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai.

CBS 60 Minutes newsman Ed Bradley lost his life to leukemia on November 9, 2006. And ever since news of his death reached the world, reactions have been overwhelming -- and like nothing correspondent Lesley Stahl has even seen.

"I've been around here a long time and there was a quality of reaction from the public that was personal in a way I can't explain and everyone here has had the same thing," she said. "We have all been flooded with e-mails."

Bradley was the king, says his former correspondent Bob Simon. "He had the most authoritative presence and style on the broadcast and that's not replaceable," he said.

Faced with the huge loss of Bradley, CBS won't even bother to replace him in the middle of the TV season. Instead, his workload will be spread around -- a unique arrangement for 60 Minutes -- for as long as it takes to find the next full-time person armed with the ability to take on Bradley's correspondent role.

Bradley's death also robs 60 Minutes of its only on-screen black correspondent. And while it's important to represent diversity, the powers that be believe it would be a mistake to fill the spot with someone just for the sake of addressing the issue.

So those at CBS will just wait for the right person to come along -- while they collectively grieve for the right person they just lost.

Angelina Jolie -- making even more headlines than usual as she speaks openly about falling in love with Brad Pitt -- has confirmed that her mother is battling ovarian cancer.

Jolie says in an upcoming interview with CNN host Larry King that her 56-year-old mom, Marcheline Bertrand, is doing good -- and she expects her to win her fight against the disease.

"She has fought for six years and she's a remarkable woman, she's very, very strong and her spirit remains unbroken."

Jolie's Larry King interview will air on Monday, December 18.

Earlier this month I blogged about a book called Dear Cancer. The author, Laura Parisi King is a breast cancer survivor. I met Laura through the Young Survival Coalition and she agreed to do an interview with me about her breast cancer journey.

When were you diagnosed with breast cancer?

I was diagnosed with cancer on October 9, 2002. I was 41 years old. I had found a large mass in my right breast and was told by a doctor in Florida that it was just fibrocystic tissue and that it was nothing to worry about. After seven months of 'not worrying', my GYN in New York felt the mass and sent me to a surgeon. The surgeon said that the mass had to come out. He removed it and told me that it was cancer. After many tests I learned that the cancer had already spread. I have it in both lungs, both hips, my ribcage, sternum, spine and neck.

Dear Cancer is a book of inspiration and comfort that will make the reader laugh, cry and see adversity in a new light. The author shares her true story of living with Stage IV breast cancer from the shock of diagnoses to the rigors of chemotherapy and other treatments.

Written with honesty, sensitivity and humor, Dear Cancer will support and encourage anyone who is confronted by cancer, or any life-challenging illness. It touches every emotion from extreme sadness and rage, to joy and gratitude

The author, Laura Parisi King, who I met on the Young Survival Coalition website is a licensed master social worker. Laura was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer in October of 2002.

An excerpt from her book...

Dear Cancer,

You have tried to break my spirit.

Yet because of you I am more spiritual than ever before.

You have tried to shake my faith.

Yet my faith is strong than ever.

You have tried to upset my relationships.

Yet they continue to flourish in spite of you.

You have tried to turn my life upside down.

ok, you got me on that one.

Lord of the Rings Oscar award-winning filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have donated over $300,000 dollars to the University of California for human embryonic stem cell research.

Jackson is quoted as saying, "We have lost close friends and relatives to cancer and Parkinson's disease, and the level of personal suffering inflicted on patients and their families by these diseases is horrific."

The Bill and Joan Jackson Scholars Fund, in honor of Jackson's parents, will be established through the university to award two scholarships to students specializing in stem cell research. Because the US government restricts research funding for the use of stem cells from human embryos -- which some religious groups have objected to as morally equivalent to abortion -- and others support as the path to cures for many diseases including cancer -- human embryonic stem cell research in this country requires private funding.

"Stem cell therapy has the potential to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses, which up until now have been labelled incurable. It has the capacity to exponentially improve the quality of life for those who currently suffer from spinal cord injury, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and many other debilitating medical conditions, " stated Jackson.

In a universal health system, care is rationed by medical priority when determining where health dollars will be spent and what types of treatment will be covered. In the UK, a debate is taking place between British scientists who are recommending that unproven or disproved complementary therapies not be funded and therapists of complementary medicine who argue that many of the alternative therapies have been proven effective and should be funded for patients who can benefit from such therapies. This has opened up a whole new discussion in defining exactly what alternative or complementary therapies are and what place they have in modern medical practice.

Meanwhile, Prince Charles, a strong advocate of alternative therapies and organic foods, spoke to World Health Assembly members of the World Health Organization about the need to consider making better use of traditional therapies, particularly acupuncture and herbal medicines, to improve health care around the world.

"I believe that the proper mix of proven complementary, traditional and modern remedies, which emphasizes the active participation of the patient, can help to create a powerful healing force in the world,'' Charles said. "This is where orthodox practice can learn from complementary medicine, the West can learn from the East and new from old traditions."

Prince Charles is concerned that if we do not recognize the wisdom and value of the past, much of that knowledge will be lost. Putting aside politics, monarchy and scandal, I am gaining more respect for the Prince of Wales the more I learn about his perspectives concerning health and the environment.