Мари Йонэхара

Mari Yonehara, a Russian simultaneous interpreter and humorous essayst, died May 25. She was 56 years old.

I'm a fan of her essays which are full of humor. You can read some of her essays here.
http://www.alc.co.jp/eng/hontsu/soutsu/index.html

Here's her obituary on The Japan Times Online.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060530b3.html