Died. George Frazier, 63, acerbic, eccentric newspaper columnist; of lung cancer; in Cambridge, Mass. A self-styled Brahmin, Frazier was the Harvard-honed son of a fire inspector. After making his name as a jazz critic, ubiquitous freelance and LIFE writer, the widely read gadfly went on to ramble polysyllabically about style, taste and whatever else he fancied in his Boston Herald and, later, Boston Globe columns. Proud of his image as a professional snob—he proclaimed the common man an "ill-clad, ill-spoken hooligan"—Frazier brought his own hot dogs to baseball games and named among his bêtes noires white socks ("Shoot 'em on sight. As bad as turtlenecks").
Died. Miguel Angel Asturias, 74, Guatemalan novelist, diplomat and winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize for literature; of a respiratory ailment and intestinal tumor; in Madrid. A hulking man with strikingly saurian eyes, Asturias was a dedicated leftist. He spent much of his life abroad, either as a student, in diplomatic service or, when the Guatemalan government had taken one of its periodic swings to the extreme right, as an exile. His first major novel, The President, a searing indictment of a Guatemalan dictator, was followed by a trilogy blasting the imperialism of the United Fruit Co. in Latin America. In 1966 he received the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union.
Died. Prince Henry William Frederick Albert, 74, Duke of Gloucester, third son of King George V of England; after a long illness; in Northamptonshire, England. Educated at Sandhurst, the Duke interrupted his military career to assume princely duties after his eldest brother Edward, Duke of Windsor, gave up his throne in 1936 to marry American Divorcee Wallis Simpson. For his brother King George VI, Gloucester undertook a spate of ceremonial chores and overseas good-will missions; he also indulged his passion for riding, fox hunting and polo. After serving as a high-ranking liaison officer in World War II, he spent a few years as an unpopular Governor General of Australia. Following the coronation of his niece Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, he continued to make the rounds as official emissary of the House of Windsor.
Died. Sholom Secunda, 79, versatile composer of 1,000 popular songs; of cancer; in Manhattan. Already famed as a cantor, Secunda at the age of eight emigrated to the U.S. from Russia, later graduated from Juilliard. In 1932 he whipped up Bel Mir Bistu Schein while sitting on a New York boardwalk, but together with Lyricist Jacob Jacobs sold the copyright five years later for $30. Soon picked up by a then obscure trio called the Andrews Sisters, the tune went on to gross $3 million by 1961, when the rights reverted to the authors. In the meantime Secunda had won distinction as an orchestra leader and a composer of Jewish liturgical melodies and dozens of Yiddish musicals.