Annette Funicello, original Mickey Mouse Club member, dies at 70

The darling of TV’s “The Mickey Mouse Club” in the 1950s who went on to star with Frankie Avalon in a string of “beach” movies that helped define the California image of the 1960s died this morning at a hospital in Bakersfield. (Photo is of the duo in 1963’s “Beach Party.”) She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1987 and later became a spokeswoman for treatment of the disease. She and her husband, Bob Holt, moved from the Los Angeles area after a fire gutted their home in 2011. Obituary: LA Times