Divorced. George O'Brien, 48. daredevil Western cinemactor and hero of Zane Grey roles; by Marguerite Churchill O'Brien, 37, auburn-haired stage & screen actress; after 15 years of marriage, two children; in Los Angeles.

Died. Dr. George William Lewis, 66, longtime research director for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1924-47); of a heart ailment; in Lake Winola, Pa. As head of the world's greatest aeronautical research agency (serving U.S. plane builders and the armed forces), Dr. Lewis fathered major experimental laboratories at Langley Field. Va., Cleveland, and Moffett Field, Calif., guided a spate of new developments (in propellers, jet propulsion, wind tunnels, etc.), including revolutionary wing designs which cut "profile drag" (the main hindrance to flight efficiency) by about 67%.

Died. Dr. Franz Weidenreich, 75, famed German-born anthropologist; in Manhattan. His research on Asiatic skull fossils led to a revolutionary theory that modern man was descended from a giant rather than a pygmy predecessor. Aided by discoveries of Dr. Ralph von Koenigswald, he revamped the chronology of human evolution, placed the huge Gigantopithecus (450-550,000 years old) as man's earliest known ancestor.

Died. Ildebrando ("Papa") Zacchini, 80, Italian-born circus impresario who introduced the human cannon ball act in 1922; in Tampa, Fla. Patriarch of two generations of the often injured but never killed "Flying Zacchinis" (the stunt has led 32 non-Zacchinis to their deaths), Ildebrando lost a leg seven years ago, after he had already retired to devote himself to painting.

Died. Ralph D. Blumenfeld, 84, Wisconsin-born, British-naturalized editor of the London Daily Express (1902-1932); in Dunmow, Essex. Blumenfeld joined the Daily Express when its circulation was 250,000, helped raise it to more than 2,000,000, and won the sobriquet, "Father of Fleet Street," before he retired.

Died. General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing, 87, commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I; in Washington (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

Died. William Nelson Cromwell, 94, eminent New York corporation lawyer (founding partner of Sullivan & Cromwell); in Manhattan. One of the organizers of U.S. Steel, Cromwell was the last surviving principal (as general counsel) of the dubious New Panama Canal Co. that paid French engineering interests an estimated $5,000,000 "for canal rights in Panama, talked Theodore Roosevelt into buying them up for $40 million.

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