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She was always the lady. Harry said Texans who voted for Richard Nixon could "go to hell," she telephoned and told him, "If you can't talk politer than that in public, you come right home." But she kept her views private. When asked on national TV in 1955 if she had anything to say about politics "specifically or in general," she shot back, "Not in either category, thank you." Last and first, a lady. —By William A. Henry III
HOSPITALIZED. Jennifer O'Neill, 34, former fashion model and sultry star of the film Summer of '42; for abdominal surgery to remove a bullet, after she accidentally shot herself; in Bedford Hills, N. Y.
DIED. Mario del Monaco, 67, celebrated, booming-voiced tenor who was most renowned for his rendition of Verdi's Otello, which he played in 427 performances; of a heart attack; in Mestre, Italy. Blessed with a magnificent though sometimes unsubtle voice, the virtuoso proclaimed, "When I sang, people would not say they were going to hear Otello or Tosca, but Del Monaco." He was buried in his Otello costume while the funeral hymns were sung by his own recorded voice.
DIED. Pierre Mendès France, 75, Premier of France (1954-55) and respected godfather of the French left; of a heart attack; in Paris. A brilliant lawyer, courageous World War II pilot and intellectual,
Mendès France believed his country should forget its grand imperial illusions and curb centralized executive power. During his brief, 7½-month tenure as Premier, he pledged to end France's Indochina war within one month (and did so), gave autonomy to Tunisia and persuaded France's National Assembly to approve West German rearmament. Often politically unpopular because of his abrasive righteousness, Mendès France earned numerous enemies (including Charles de Gaulle) and was sometimes ridiculed, notably for his ill-starred recommendation that the bibulous French switch from wine to milk. But said Disciple François Mitterrand at his 1981 inauguration as President: "It is thanks to you that this is possible."
DIED. Hans Selye, 75, Vienna-born endocrinologist and the world's foremost authority on stress; in Montreal. Experiments on rats led him to theories about stress, which he explored in 33 books (including Stress Without Distress, 1974). The body's physical response to stress—alarm, resistance and exhaustion—can cause disease and death, Selye demonstrated. He contended that modern humans are no more its victims than were cave dwellers and suggested that by learning to control stress "people could live past 100."
DIED. Siegmund Warburg, 80, energetic German-born banker who startled the closed-door world of London merchant banking with his unorthodox innovations; in London. The cultured scion of a centuries-old Jewish financial dynasty, Warburg fled Nazi Germany for London in 1934. In 1939 he founded his own trading company and in 1946 his own bank. Combining Teutonic discipline with new ideas, he managed the first U.S. corporate-bond issue in Europe and masterminded Tube Investments' and Reynolds Metals' takeover of British Aluminium.