I found this interesting. Posted on Sept 13 2006, when JK was interviewed.
'Tonight's audience was treated with much more informative and revealing answers than yesterday. Here are a few highlights (again, paraphrased):
If you could bring one of your characters to life -- other than Harry -- who would it be? Hagrid. We all want a Hagrid in our lives.
(Question about Aunt Petunia's potential to love Harry): I will say this... There's a little more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye.
(Question about upcoming deaths): You shouldn't expect Dumbledore to pull a Gandalf. I need to be more explicit: Dumbledore is definitely dead. I know there's an entire site out there called DumbledoreIsNotDead.com, and I'm sorry they're not going to like this answer.
If you could host five of your own characters for dinner, who would they be? Harry, Ron, and Hermione... [Rowling pauses; thinks about a different character who's dead but does not say his/her name. King interjects: "they could be dead"]. Dumbledore.... [another pause]. Hagrid.
So Dumbledore is truly dead.
Here is the site.
http://www.hpana.com/news.19531.html