Milestones, Dec. 22, 1958

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Married. Bernard Buffet, 30, French painter whose spare depictions of hopelessness have made him a young millionaire in postwar France; and Annabel May Schwob de Lure, 30, model-singer-writer; in Ramatuelle, France.

Married. Harry Bridges, 57, boss of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union; and Noriko Sawada, 35, Nisei secretary; after difficulty with a Nevada miscegenation law; in Reno (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

Died. "Messiah" Krishna Venta (real name: Francis Heindswatzer Pencovic), 47, cultist, leader of the WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Love) Fountain of the World; in a dynamite blast set off by two ex-members of the Fountain, who died taking eight others with them; near Chatsworth, Calif. (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

Died. Major General Bogardus Snowden Cairns, U.S.A., 48, developer of the armed helicopter, commandant of the Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala.; in the crash of a light helicopter; at Fort Rucker. "Bugs" Cairns's career told the modern history of cavalry. After West Point ('32), he started out on horseback, had switched to tanks by World War II; last year at Fort Rucker, he took over the whirring, still-experimental cavalry of the sky. The general loved his "choppers," once said: "Like Wellington's cavalry, the helicopter can strike like a wolfpack and bite. It can slice and run, pull back and hit the other side. A chopper can be as low as a man on a horse, too."

Dyd. Mont Folik (real name: Mont Follick), 70, wuntym (1945-55) Inglish Laboryt M.P. hu twys introdust bils dezynd tu reform fonetekli dhe speling ov dhe Inglish langwij, inventor ov a sirkular rotating tuthbrsh, wuntym Inglish profesor at dhe Universiti ov Madrid and Sekretri tu dhe lat Aga Ron; in London. Follick's first bill lost by just three votes. During the debate, a Tory M.P. wondered if Follick proposed to spell water u-o-o-r-t-e-r, pointed out that "some Cockneys say wa'er and Americans say watter, but how do the Scotsmen say it?" Then Glasgow's John Rankin closed that part of the discussion, said: "In Scawtland, we prrronounce it whuskey."

Died. Tris Speaker, 70, baseball's great Grey Eagle, centerfielder for the Boston Red Sox (1907-15) and Cleveland Indians (1916-26); of a heart attack; at Lake Whitney, Texas. When alltime baseball teams are named, centerfield automatically belongs to Tris Speaker, not so much for his .345-caliber hitting as for his matchless fielding. Figuring that 98% of outfield hits fall in front of fielders, Speaker took advantage of his speed, played in so close that he almost breathed down the second baseman's neck. He watched the batter's feet, knew where the ball would go, was off at the crack of the bat. When the fly dropped, he was waiting. Grabbing line drives on the short hop, he threw runners out at first. Player-manager of the Indians during his last ten seasons, he led them to their first World Championship (1920), in recent years served as batting coach at the Indians' spring training camp.

Died. Ralph Ansel Ward, 76, veteran (50 years) missionary to the Chinese. Methodist Bishop of Hong Kong, president (1925-27) of Foochow's Anglo-Chinese College, onetime resident Bishop at Chengtu (1937-41) and at Shanghai. World War II prisoner of the Japanese; in Hong Kong.

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