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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p>
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.</p>
Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.</p>
Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.</p>
Immortalized in the Washington's <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" id="lw_1196459073_0" class="yshortcuts">Smithsonian Institution</span> as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196459073_1" class="yshortcuts">Caesar's Palace</span> in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196459073_2" class="yshortcuts">Las Vegas</span>. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.</p>
Although he dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, Knievel always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years. In later years he still made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products. Thousands came to Butte, Mont., every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival.</p>
"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."</p>
His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196459073_3" class="yshortcuts">Kanye West</span> had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.</div></p>
Source: Yahoo News</p>
RIP</p>
Pretty ironic link with Knievel and Kanye West and Kanye West's mother also passing just recently. Synchronicity.</p>
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.</p>
Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.</p>
Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.</p>
Immortalized in the Washington's <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" id="lw_1196459073_0" class="yshortcuts">Smithsonian Institution</span> as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196459073_1" class="yshortcuts">Caesar's Palace</span> in <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196459073_2" class="yshortcuts">Las Vegas</span>. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.</p>
Although he dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, Knievel always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years. In later years he still made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products. Thousands came to Butte, Mont., every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival.</p>
"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."</p>
His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204);" id="lw_1196459073_3" class="yshortcuts">Kanye West</span> had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.</div></p>
Source: Yahoo News</p>
RIP</p>
Pretty ironic link with Knievel and Kanye West and Kanye West's mother also passing just recently. Synchronicity.</p>
