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Abby Rockefeller Milton, only daughter of John D. Rockefeller Jr., arrived in Reno to get a divorce, after 18 years, from David Meriwether Milton. A blithe young speed enthusiast known as "The Golden Girl" to society editors of the mid '20s, she had stayed out of the news since her marriage. Milton is a lawyer whose accomplishments include borrowing $1,000,000 from his father-in-law. The divorce will be the first involving one of John D. Sr.'s direct descendants.
Madge Bellamy, wide-eyed star of the silents, sued for a divorce of a sort from Lumberman Albert Stanwood Murphy, whom she scared with some wild shenanigans last January 'for allegedly jilting her (TIME, Feb. 1). Murphy had been honeymooning with his new bride at that time. Alleged Madge Bellamy last week: under Nevada law she and Murphy have really been married since 1941, though without any ceremony, since Nevada considers it already a marriage when two people make up their minds.
Henry Fonda, now a quartermaster in the Navy, was the latest Hollywood celebrity to come down with girl trouble. Barbara Jean Thompson, a 24-year-old divorced mother of four, charged that he was the father of her fourth. Said Fonda's confident wife Frances: "It isn't true. ... This girl will have to settle with me." The girl demanded: $10,000 for lawyer's fees, $2,500 for court costs, $5,000 for hospital bills, $2,000 a month for the baby.
Jack Dempsey won custody of his daughters Joan and Barbara, eight and six. "I don't care what any judge says," declared ex-wife Hannah. "He is not going to get the children. . . . I'm going to appeal to the highest court in the land. . . ."
Dr. Robert K. Speer, stocky head of New York University's elementary education department, charged his wife, two of her friends and three private detectives with disorderly conduct. He protested that they had all piled into his hotel room crying "Where's the woman?" while he was bare as a babe. There was no woman, he said, and besides they had carried off a house dress he happened to have around. "You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves," snapped the judge. "Get out of here; get into the war effort. . . ."
Fighters
James Stewart, Hollywood star with the Army Air Forces, was promoted to a captaincy at Idaho's Gowen Field.
Charles Dickens' great-grandson, British Naval Lieut. Peter Gerald Charles, got the D.S.O. for skillful and daring attacks "in enemy coastal waters."
Lieut. Peter Markham Scott, Britain's No. 1 bird painter, son of the late great Antarctic Explorer Robert Scott, commanded light naval forces which left an armed enemy trawler ablaze after an encounter off Le Havre.
Rudolf von Ribbentrop, 22-year-old, London-educated son of the German Foreign Minister, got the Knight's Insignia of the Iron Cross for service on the Russian front. He commands a tank company.
Tony Galento, the boxer who walks like a beer barrel, was fined $60 in Orange, N.J., for pushing his right at a cop. The heavyweight saloonkeeper had refused to drop a nickel in a parking meter (and refused to stop shadow-boxing in court).
<footnote>*A jug with ears.</footnote>