Quotes of the Day

TIME is built on the strength of its reporters, and this month we lost one of our best: SANDRA BURTON, 62, who died suddenly in Bali. Sandy was one of the first female correspondents we sent into the field. In 1982, she came to Asia—which she would make her home—and the next year, she accompanied exiled dissident Benigno Aquino Jr. on his fateful return to the Philippines, then ruled by his archenemy, Ferdinand Marcos. Aquino was gunned down when he left the plane. Sandy placed her tape recorder against a plane window, and its record of gunshots and shouting—and her reporting—would cast doubt on Marcos' contention that a lone gunman had killed his rival. By the time Sandy left the magazine in 1998, the woman who had been reluctantly let out into the field had become TIME's foreign correspondent emeritus.
—Howard Chua-Eoan, News Director

DIED. MARGE SCHOTT, 75, philanthropist and controversial owner of the Cincinnati Reds; in Cincinnati. Under Schott, a lumber magnate's daughter who gave her St. Bernard dogs the run of the ballpark, the Reds won the 1990 baseball World Series. But Schott was twice suspended from running the franchise after making insensitive remarks, including slurs against black players and praise for Adolf Hitler. ("Hitler was good in the beginning," she told a newspaper, "but he went too far.")

DIED. RUSLAN GELAYEV, 39, Chechen separatist, in a shoot-out with Russian border guards; near the village of Bezhta, Dagestan. Gelayev was a formidable military commander in the 1994-96 war against Russian forces. Even some foes showed grudging respect for Gelayev, who was known as a ruthless fighter but not as a terrorist. Moscow-backed Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov told the Itar-Tass news agency that fighting in Chechnya would continue despite the warlord's death.

DIED. JEROME LAWRENCE, 88, co-author of dozens of plays including The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail and Auntie Mame; in Malibu, California. Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, his collaborator for more than 50 years, often used history as a vehicle for commentary on controversial current events. Inherit the Wind focused on the 1925 "Monkey Trial" of John Thomas Scopes, a teacher accused of teaching evolution, but it was really about intolerance in the McCarthy era. The 1955 play "was written because we were indignant, appalled at thought control in the mid-'50s," Lawrence told the Los Angeles Times.

RETIRED. ALISTAIR COOKE, 95, after 58 years of recording his Letter from America show for BBC radio; in New York City. Cooke was known to American audiences as the host of the Masterpiece Theater TV series.

APPROVED. FERNANDO POE JR., 64, Philippine film star, to run for President, by the Philippine Supreme Court; in Manila. The popular actor faced disqualification from the race, because his mother was American and not married to his father at the time of his birth in the Philippines. The latest survey by pollster Social Weather Stations shows Poe neck and neck with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ahead of the May 10 election.

10 Years Ago in TIME
A decade ago, Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned from exile to become President of HAITI. Despite the backing of the U.S., his chances for success were by no means ensured, as this TIME cover suggested:

Even his friends await Aristide's homecoming with mixed emotions. Aristide took a dim view of U.S. interference in the hemisphere: many of his sermons attacked the U.S. government—though never, as he liked to point out, "the American people." After hearing so much from him about the evils of U.S. policy, it is hard for his disciples to understand why he would agree to return hand in hand with the U.S. military ... Despite the difficulties ahead, the returning President firmly believes he can help democracy take root in Haiti. "Not one minute of this has been easy," he says, "and no one expects things to go any more smoothly once we are back. But ... we must return." For the Haitians who elected him, he remains, as one supporter put it, "democracy incarnate." Whatever its reservations, the Clinton Administration has also concluded that without him, democracy in Haiti has no hope at all.
—TIME, Sept. 26, 1994

• Austin Ramzy
• TIME journalist Sandra Burton passes away