Kermit Love, 1916 - 2008

Kermit Love, the costume designer for some of ballet's most renowned choreographers whose greatest fame came as a creator, with Jim Henson, of the beloved Sesame Street characters Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus, died on June 21 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 91 and lived in Stanfordville, N.Y.

Although Mr. Love collaborated with luminaries of dance like George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Robert Joffrey, Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp, it was the 8-foot-2, yellow-feathered Big Bird and his 7-foot, woolly mammoth-like friend Mr. Snuffleupagus - both perennially 6 years old - that brought him global attention.

Mr. Love, who, with his Santa Claus-like beard played Willy the Hot Dog Man on the show, also helped design Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster; he insisted he was not the namesake of the famous frog. He created characters for 22 foreign versions of Sesame Street.

We miss him already.