Died. Jack Mills, 64, engineer of the royal mail train that in 1963 was robbed of $7,000,000; of pneumonia; in Nantwich, England. Mills was so severely beaten during the robbery that he was unable to continue as an engineer. When the wife of one of the bandits received $72,000 from a newspaper for her story of the crime, public embarrassment led to a fund-raising drive for Mills, who collected $82,528.
Died. Gertrude Douglas Widener, 71, One of thoroughbred racing's grandes dames; of cancer; in Manhattan. Though married to Peter A.B. Widener II, heir to the racing and breeding dynasty, the beautiful socialite was determined to make it on her own; under her own colors, she bred and raced such horses as Hula Dancer and Dan Cupid. Her greatest was the stallion Polynesian, winner of the 1945 Preakness and sire of the magnificent Native Dancer.
Died. Louise Bogan, 72, distinguished American lyric poet; of a heart attack; in Manhattan. "I have no fancy ideas about poetry," Miss Bogan once remarked. "It is something you have to work hard at." And work she did, from 1931 to 1969 as writer and poetry critic for The New Yorker, and as the author of six volumes of verse. A consummate lyricist, she wrote with forceful emotion and maturity, as in "Juan's Song":
When beauty breaks and falls
asunder
I feel no grief for it, but wonder.
When love, like a frail shell, lies
broken,
I keep no chip of it for token.
I never had a man for friend Who did not know that love must
end.
Died. Rosie Dolly, 77, one of Broadway's glamorous dancing Dolly Sisters who with her identical twin Jenny, was the toast of two continents in the Roaring Twenties; of a heart attack; in Manhattan. Beautiful and talented, the daughters of Hungarian immigrants (Roszika and Yancsi Deutch), they danced to packed houses on both sides of the Atlantic. Jenny, after several unhappy marriages, hanged herself in 1941. Rosie married Canadian Millionaire Mortimer Davis Jr., later shed him for wealthy Chicago Department Store Heir Irving Netcher.
Died. Francis C. Frary, 85, pioneer in aluminum research, who as head of Alcoa's labs discovered the electrolytic process of producing super-pure aluminum and held 30 important patents for the company; in Pittsburgh.
Died. Bertrand Russell, 97, colossus of 20th century philosophy (see THE WORLD).