May 14, 2006

A.M. ROSENTHAL, 84: The demanding editor who lifted The New York Times from economic doldrums in the 1970s and molded it into a journalistic juggernaut known for distinguished reporting of national and world affairs died Wednesday of complications from a stroke he suffered two weeks ago. Mr. Rosenthal spent virtually all of his working life at the Times, beginning as a campus stringer in 1943. He covered the United Nations for eight years from its inception in 1946 and later reported from India, Switzerland, Poland and Japan. His tough coverage of Warsaw's communist regime in the late 1950s earned him expulsion from the country – and the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. In 1969, taking the helm of a paper then in financial distress, Mr. Rosenthal, first as managing editor and later as executive editor, effected sweeping changes to expand advertising and readership. He beefed up the Times' metropolitan coverage; added a daily business section and specialty sections on sports, weekend features and science; and pumped new life into its prose. On his watch, the Times published the “Pentagon Papers,” a history of America's secret involvement in Vietnam, which in 1972 brought the paper another of its many Pulitzers. He became executive editor in 1977, stepping down in 1986 at age 64, a year short of the paper's mandatory retirement age, to begin a twice-weekly op-ed column called “On My Mind.”

LILLIAN ASPLUND, 99: The last American survivor of the sinking of the Titanic was laid to rest Wednesday in Worcester, Mass. Miss Asplund, who never married, died May 6. She was 5 when the ship went down in the North Atlantic in the early morning of April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. She lost her father and three of her four brothers. Her mother, Selma, and brother Felix, who was 3, survived the sinking but have since died. At least two other survivors are living in England, but they were less than a year old when the ship sank, and too young to have memories of the disaster. The last Titanic survivor to remember it, Miss Asplund shunned publicity and rarely spoke about it. Her mother described the sinking in an interview with the Worcester Telegram & Gazette shortly after she and her two remaining children arrived in the city. “I could see the icebergs for a great distance around. ... It was cold, and the little ones were cuddling close to one another and trying to keep from under the feet of the many excited people. ... My little girl, Lillie, accompanied me, and my husband said, 'Go ahead; we will get into one of the other boats.' He smiled as he said it.”

GEORGE “LEE” LUTZ, 59: His family's brief stay at an Amityville, N.Y., home spawned one of the most famous haunted-house stories ever. Mr. Lutz, a former land surveyor, became famous after moving his new bride and three children into a three-story Dutch Colonial on Long Island in 1975. About a year earlier, six members of the DeFeo family had been shot and killed in the home. Ronald DeFeo Jr., the eldest son, was convicted of the murders. The Lutzes lived in the home for 28 days before being driven out – by the spirits of the DeFeos, according to Lutz's account. The family's eerie tales became the source for Jay Anson's 1977 book, “The Amityville Horror,” along with a 1979 film of the same title and a 2005 remake. Mr. Lutz, a resident of Las Vegas, died Monday of natural causes, his lawyer said Wednesday.

JIM DELSING, 80: The former St. Louis Browns outfielder, who played 10 seasons in the major leagues, is perhaps best known for his part in one of baseball's most unusual stunts. On Aug. 19, 1951, the Browns were playing a doubleheader against Detroit when St. Louis owner Bill Veeck had a midget named Eddie Gaedel sent in to hit in the second game. After Tigers pitcher Bob Cain walked Gaedel on four pitches, Browns manager Zack Taylor sent Delsing in to pinch-run for him. The Browns lost 6-2. Mr. Delsing, who died of cancer May 4, signed a professional contract at age 16 in 1942 with Green Bay of the Wisconsin State League. After five seasons in the minor leagues, he played 20 games for the Chicago White Sox in 1948, then was traded to the New York Yankees in 1949. He was traded to the Browns on June 15, 1950. He played 69 games for the Browns and finished with a .263 batting average before being traded to Detroit in 1952.

JOHN M. POCISK, 65: In the 1950s and '60s, he was known as Johnny Paris in the rock group Johnny & the Hurricanes. Mr. Pocisk's group had such hits as “Red River Rock” and “Beatnik Fly.” He died May 1 at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. He had been in the hospital for nearly two months, but his illness and cause of death were not released pending an autopsy. Mr. Pocisk was a tenor saxophonist who frequently toured Europe. He formed his first band while in high school, and his next group, The Orbits, developed a following. When they backed a vocal group on a demo tape, a management agency noticed them, and the group became Johnny & the Hurricanes. Hits followed, especially “Red River Rock,” which sold more than 1 million copies and reached No. 5 on the U.S. charts and No. 3 in Great Britain. The group played at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962, headlining a gig that included the then-little-known English group The Beatles.

CHEN LI, 77: The former editor in chief of China Daily, the Communist government's main English-language newspaper, died May 6 in Beijing of an illness, the newspaper reported Monday. Mr. Chen joined the China Daily in 1982 after holding a series of reporting and editing jobs at government newspapers and a book-publishing house, the newspaper said. He was the top editor from 1986-93. Born in 1929 in Shanghai to the family of a leading figure in the then-Nationalist regime, Chen “chose a different road and joined the Chinese revolution,” the newspaper said. It gave no details of his role in the Communists' rise to power in 1949. Chen began his journalism career at the Tianjin Daily newspaper in 1949 and was sent to report on the Korean War armistice talks in 1953. As China Daily's editor in chief, he oversaw creation of its Shanghai edition, the English-language Beijing Weekend magazine and other publications, the paper said.

MONAD HOLM, 89: A former hobo who was kicked off trains during the Great Depression, “Monte” Holm later became a successful businessman and kept a promise he made to himself to one day own a railroad. Mr. Holm, who died May 3 in Moses Lake, Wash., was one of the few remaining registered owners of a private rail line. Mr. Holm operated the House of Poverty Museum, which showcased his collection of train cars, including a dining car used by President Wilson and later President Truman, the last steam engine operated in Alaska and several cabooses. He founded Moses Lake Iron and Metal in the 1950s and Moses Lake Steel in the 1970s, and was elected to the Moses Lake City Council in 1964. He served six years. According to “Once a Hobo: The Autobiography of Monte Holm,” published in 1999, he bought the cars to fulfill a promise he made while traveling around the country between jobs as a sheepherder in Montana.

JOHN KIMBROUGH, 87: The Texas A&M football hero, movie star and former state legislatordied Monday in his hometown of Haskell, Texas, after a brief bout with pneumonia. Known as the “Haskell Hurricane,” Mr. Kimbrough was a fullback for Texas A&M's 1939 national championship team. In the 1940 Sugar Bowl, he rushed for 152 yards and two touchdowns in the Aggies' 14-13 win over Tulane, which capped an 11-0 season. The next year, he rushed for 658 yards, scored seven touchdowns and intercepted six passes, finishing second in the Heisman Trophy balloting to Michigan's Tom Harmon. Mr. Kimbrough starred in two Hollywood Westerns in 1942, “Sundown Jim” and “Lone Star Ranger.” He then was an Army pilot in the Pacific during World War II, retiring with the rank of captain. He played for the Los Angeles Dons of the All-American Football Conference, a short-lived rival of the NFL.

PIETRO GARINEI, 87: With Sandro Giovannini, he wrote songs and produced musical comedies that were hits in Italy and overseas. The two were among Italy's most successful playwrights and impresarios, casting for the stage top Italian actors including Anna Magnani, Marcello Mastroianni and Alberto Sordi. Their song “Arrivederci Roma” won international renown when it was performed in English by Perry Como, becoming one of the symbols of la dolce vita, the romantic, carefree life of 1950s and '60s Rome. The song was featured in the 1958 Hollywood musical “The Seven Hills of Rome.” The pair's 1962 musical “Rugantino,” the story of two lovers in 19th-century Rome, ran on Broadway in 1964 and was made into a movie. Mr. Garinei died Monday in an intensive-care unit at the Forlanini hospital in Rome. No cause of death was released.

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