Dame Daphne du Maurier, 81, who became one of the century`s most popular writers by mixing romance and the supernatural in ”Rebecca” and other novels; the author also wrote such popular classics as ”Frenchman`s Creek”
and ”The Birds”; widowed in 1965, she for many years lived a secluded existence on the wild English Cornish coast that inspired the settings for many of her works; April 19, in the village of Par, in southwest England.
Jocko Conlan, 89, National League umpire for 24 years who had been the oldest living member of baseball`s Hall of Fame; he umpired five World Series and six All-Star Games before retiring after the 1964 season; before umpiring, he was a player for 14 seasons but made it up to the major leagues for only two years (1934, 1935), with the Chicago White Sox; April 16, in Scottsdale, Ariz.
William Newby, 64, retired vice president of public relations and community affairs for Jewel Foods, which he joined in 1958; as such, he was spokesman for the firm for 19 years and instrumental in encouraging Jewel to place stores in the inner city at a time when other companies were abandoning outlets in the area; his focus on returning stores to commercially abandoned neighborhoods included hiring and training people from those communities to staff and manage the stores; often referred to as ”Mr. Jewel” by members of community groups, he received many awards from them for his work; the Hinsdale resident was named director of community relations in 1966 and in 1973 was made vice president; April 19, in Hinsdale Hospital.
Benny Dunn, 75, former standup nightclub comic, former Playboy publicity manager and ”mayor of Rush Street” who could have garnered many votes as one of this city`s nicest guys; as the ”Cheyenne kid,” he visited children`s hospitals weekly in cowboy garb; during World War II, he did a standup comedy act in hospitals for battlefield casualties; after the war, he was booked to emcee a show at the Morrison Hotel, but he froze on stage and never returned to perform except in hospitals and orphanages; he also once operated the city`s Black Orchid Restaurant, where he booked many top entertainers, beginning his close acquaintance with such performers as Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson, Danny Kaye, Shecky Greene and Joey Bishop; found dead April 16 at his North Side home.
Ruth Berle, 67, wife of television pioneer and comedian Milton Berle, whom she married in 1953; she was active in Democratic politics and was a delegate to the party`s 1968 national convention in Chicago; she also assisted philanthropic causes, particularly SHARE, an organization dedicated to aiding mentally handicapped children; April 18, in a Los Angeles hospital, of cancer. Pauline Lohens, 60, employee for 38 years of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board; she was director of that agency`s office of information resources management and, in that capacity, had a major responsibility for the processing of millions of claims; the agency administers the $7-billion-a-year railroad retirement and railroad unemployment compensation benefits programs for 1.5 million active and retired railroad workers and their families; she joined the board in 1952, starting as a statistician; April 17, in Chicago`s Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center, after a stroke.
Rev. Lawrence McMahon, 75, Chicago native who was a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Columban religious congregation and spent 32 years as a missionary in Burma, including three during World War II when he was incarcerated by the Japanese army in a leper colony; he attended grammar school in St. Rita and Visitation parishes, and was sent to Burma in 1939 to work with the Kachin people, a minority group in northern Burma; the Japanese took the Columban missionaries and put them in a leper colony run by Franciscan missionaries in Mandalay, Burma, from 1942 to 1945; he obtained and distributed medicines and educational materials to the Kachins from friends and relatives in Chicago and New York and helped to develop both primary and secondary schools; April 18, in a Glenwood nursing home.
Frances Steloff, 101, whose Gotham Book Mart in New York was the place to browse, work and buy books for many great American writers; she founded her Book Mart in 1920 with little support or backing and sustained it through the Depression and World War II; April 15, in New York.
Fred Cramer, 76, former U.S. and international chess official and Bobby Fischer`s manager in a famous seven-week match with Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in 1972; he was a former president of the U.S. Chess Federation
(1960-63) and was vice president of the International Chess Federation;
April 18, in Mequon, Wis., of cancer.
David Bond, 74, character actor who appeared on Broadway, in motion pictures and on some of the most popular TV shows of the 1950s and `60s; he performed on Broadway in ”Othello” and ”Accidentally Yours” before moving west in the 1940s to make such movies as ”The Late George Apley,” ”Joan of Arc,” ”The Great Caruso” and ”Julius Caesar”; April 16, in a West Hills, Calif., hospital.
Roy Valentine Titus, 79, philanthropist and former chairman of the cosmetics company founded by his mother, Helena Rubinstein; he was chairman of the Helena Rubinstein Foundation, on the board of the Children`s Blood Foundation and was a trustee of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union-Industry Pension Fund; a film buff, he gave $1 million to the Museum of Modern Art in 1976; April 16, in New York.
Cecil Leeson, 86, music educator for many years at Ball State University who was widely credited with the rise of the saxophone from obscurity to its status as a legitimate concert instrument; in 1937, he was the first saxophonist to play New York City`s Town Hall in a performance that was the first major saxophone concert in the country; he also was one of the first musicians to appear with major U.S. symphony orchestras; more than 50 works for saxophone were written for him; April 17, in Muncie, Ind.
Dominic Olejniczak, 80, president of the National Football League`s Green Bay Packers for 24 years and mayor of the Wisconsin city for 10 years; he became president of the Packers on April 28, 1958, when the team was struggling and headed the search committee that brought Vince Lombardi to Green Bay as coach and general manager, which launched the winningest era in the team`s history; April 15, in Green Bay, of complications from a stroke.
Charles Vanel, 96, craggy-faced actor with a piercing gaze who appeared in more than 200 movies in his 76-year film career; he worked under some of the industry`s finest directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Bunuel, Jacques Feyder and Henri-Georges Clouzot; Hitchcock in 1954 cast him as a police officer on the trail of Cary Grant in ”To Catch a Thief”; April 15, in a Cannes hospital.
Edward Brecher, 77, writer who once argued in favor of the right to end one`s life at a time and in a manner of one`s own choosing; he was the author of numerous books and articles on medical, scientific and social subjects; in 1979, a year after he contracted cancer of the colon, he wrote an article entitled ”Opting for Suicide” for the New York Times Magazine; April 15, in his home in Cornwall, Conn. His death was ruled a suicide.
Mary Freemont-Smith, 92, nationally known tennis player in the 1920s, author and reporter; she won the U.S. Eastern States Women`s Singles Championship in 1920, 1924 and 1927 as well as the Greater Philadelphia Women`s Singles Champion in 1919, 1923 and 1926 and the Ladies Singles Championship of Bermuda in 1924; April 16, in Newton, Mass.
W. Deming Lewis, 74, inventor, researcher, defense adviser and former president of Lehigh University; he joined Bell Laboratories in 1941, and 20 years later was a member of the group that began Bellcomm Inc., a Bell System subsidiary devoted chiefly to systems engineering for NASA`s Apollo space project; he held 33 U.S. patents; April 19, in Bethlehem, Pa.
William Attwood, 69, author, diplomat and journalist who became publisher of Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, during a journalism career that spanned more than four decades; he served under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson as U.S. ambassador to Guinea and Kenya and as special adviser on African affairs to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations; April 14, in his home in New Canaan, Conn.
C.K. McClatchy, 62, editor and chairman of the board of McClatchy Newspapers, which publishes the Sacramento Bee and 11 other West Coast papers, including the Anchorage Daily News in Alaska; April 16, in Sacramento, apparently after suffering a heart attack while jogging.
