Died. Herbert Chitepo, 51, chairman of the Zimbabwe African National Union, a black Rhodesian freedom movement; in a land mine explosion as he backed out of his garage; in Lusaka, Zambia. In 1954 Chitepo became Rhodesia's first black lawyer (a special law was required to allow him to occupy chambers with white colleagues). An organizer of the Rhodesian African Nationalist movement, Chitepo went into exile after the movement was banned. His murder shadows efforts toward black-white detente in southern Africa.
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Died. Theodore Schocken, 60, president of Schocken Books, Inc.; after a long illness; in White Plains, N.Y. A Jew, Schocken took over his father's Berlin publishing house in 1934 at the age of 19, issued a collection of Franz Kafka, including the corrosively antitotalitarian novel The Trial. Publication was soon halted by the Gestapo. Driven into exile in 1938, Schocken fought with the U.S. Army against the Nazis, later established his own publishing house in New York, bringing out translations of Kafka's once verboten works.
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Died. Joe ("Ducky") Medwick, 63, hardhitting Hall of Fame outfielder; of an apparent heart attack; in St. Petersburg, Fla. A charter member of the St. Louis Cardinals' rambunctious "gas house gang" of the 1930s, the muscular Medwick, one of baseball's best bad-ball batters, dredged ankle-high pitches out of the dust and sent balls headed for his ear screaming over the wall. His lifetime average: .324. Short-fused Ducky was as quick with his fists as his bat. Running out a triple for his eleventh hit of the series in the seventh game of the 1934 championship between St. Louis and Detroit, Medwick was spiked by the Tiger third baseman and responded in kind, provoking a legendary riot. At inning's end, Tiger fans peppered left fielder Ducky with so many pies, vegetables and candied apples that he had to be yanked from the game. -
Died. Don Jaime Borbón y Battenberg, 66, pretender to the Spanish throne; following a stroke; in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Son of Spain's last monarch, the syphilitic Alfonso XIII, Don Jaime was born a deaf-mute. He eventually learned to speak four languages, led a sybaritic life, mostly in Italy, after his father was forced to abdicate in 1931. Don Jamie renounced his claim to the Spanish throne in 1934, but began having second thoughts in the '50s as aging Caudillo Francisco Franco vacillated between Borbón claimants who he hoped would restore the monarchy. Don Jaime was bested in the regal jockeying by his handsome nephew Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón.
Died. Clarence L. ("Biggie") Munn, 66, football coach at Michigan State University from 1947 to 1953; of a stroke; in East Lansing, Mich. When "the Big Man" was hired in 1947, M.S.U.'s team was foundering. In the first game that Biggie coached, his Spartans were obliterated 55-0 by scornful rivals from the University of Michigan. Munn rallied, recruited his "brawn trust" and trained them so skillfully that they won 54 games, lost only nine and tied two in his six years as coach.
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