A 14-year-old Medford girl died yesterday after a stunt went wrong at cheerleading practice, authorities said.

The girl...died after being thrown in the air and landing chest down in the arms of fellow cheerleaders...

In the past few decades, cheerleading has become a more athletic, more dangerous sport.

Between 1982 and 2001, 25 high school girls suffered severe injuries in cheerleading accidents...Four died.

A relative who attended the practice described Burns as a ''beautiful girl" who ''loved cheerleading."

''She died doing something she loved. She's a beautiful little girl who will be very missed."

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As long as it's not smoking I guess it's okay to die young.
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Barbara Bel Geddes, the winsome actress who rose to stage and movie stardom but reached her greatest fame as Miss Ellie Ewing in the long-running TV series ''Dallas,'' has died. She was 82.

The San Francisco Chronicle said Bel Geddes, a longtime smoker, died Monday of lung cancer at her home...

In March 1984, Bel Geddes was stricken with a major heart attack.

Hagman said he had encouraged Bel Geddes to give up the smoking habit, but it was doctors who got her to quit after the heart attack, he said. He recalled the makeup room on the ''Dallas'' set as being so filled with her cigarette smoke that he would ask to be made up in his dressing room.

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14 or 82? I'll take the lung cancer for $800, Alex.

Let's see. She quit smoking 21 years ago. Peter Jennings quit smoking 20 years ago (then resumed on 9/11, but smoking less than 4 years wouldn't be enough to cause lung cancer). Using the anti scientific methods, quitting smoking causes lung cancer.

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Originally posted by Freedom:
Let's see. She quit smoking 21 years ago. Peter Jennings quit smoking 20 years ago (then resumed on 9/11, but smoking less than 4 years wouldn't be enough to cause lung cancer). Using the anti scientific methods, quitting smoking causes lung cancer.

Oh oh. My mom quit smoking 17 years ago. I better let her know she'll be getting lung cancer when she's 83 or 84.