Milestones

Married. George A. Hormel II, 23, heir to the Hormel meat-packing fortune ("Spam") founded by his grandfather; and Leslie Caron, 18, French-born ballet dancer (An American in Paris); in Las Vegas, Nev.

Divorced. By Christine Weston, 47, novelist (Indigo, The World Is a Bridge) : Robert Weston, 60, retired forester; after 28 years of marriage, no children; in Ellsworth, Me.

Died. Master Gunnery Sergeant Lou (Leland) Diamond, 61, No. 1 mortar man of the Marine Corps and long its greatest living legend; of a lung ailment; in Great Lakes Naval Hospital, ILL. A roaring, weatherbeaten old China hand, he spent his off hours downing beer by the case, persistently refused a commission ("No one can make a gentleman out of me!"), created new legends wherever he served. On Tulagi, in World War II, they told how he smashed 14 Japanese buildings in a row with his 81-mm. mortar, then popped a shell down the chimney of the 15th. Reverent marines vowed that he was really 200 years old and had first enlisted at Tun Tavern, where the Corps was born during the Revolutionary War.

Died. John P. (for Patrick) O'Brien, 78, genial figurehead of New York's Tammany Hall machine, who filled in as the Democrats' mayor of New York (1932-33) when Jimmy Walker quit under pressure; of pneumonia; in Manhattan. The prototype of Novelist Joel Sayre's political satire, Hizzoner the Mayor, O'Brien kept his constituents constantly amused with his malaprop oratory (Sample: "That scientist of scientists, Albert Weinstein"), cooperated with pressagents by accepting such titles as "Ole-Bo-Lon, the Scentless Chrysanthemum" from a Chinese restaurant, habitually referred to New York as "this great metropolis city." So loyal was he to Tammany that when reporters once asked if he had picked a new police commissioner, his reply became apolitical classic: "I haven't had any word on that."

Died. John A. (for Augustine) Hartford, 79, who with his brother George built The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. into the world's biggest grocery chain (TIME, Nov. 13); of a heart attack; in an elevator taking him to his Manhattan office. "Mr. John" left school at 16 to work in his father's Manhattan grocery, in 1912 set up a new kind of store based on cash & carry, low profit, big volume, fast turnover. The experiment caught on and before long the Hartfords were adding stores at the rate of three a day (today there are 4,700). A sober, earnest man dedicated to his work, Brother John left the financial part of the business to Brother George, concentrated on policy and expansion, visited as many as 3,000 of his branches a year keeping personal tabs on his 120,000 employees.

Died. (Frank) Gelett Burgess, 85, gently satirical humorist, author of more than 30 books of verse and essays; of a heart attack; in Carmel, Calif. He first won fame for his jingle about a purple cow, which so caught the nation's fancy that he wrote another quatrain threatening death to the next man who recited The Purple Cow in his presence.* For more than half a century he kept a large audience laughing with his poems, literary satires and essays which he illustrated himself (Are You a Bromide?; Look Eleven Years Younger) and his word definitions (Burgess Unabridged). Some of his own coinages have become firmly fixed in the American language: blurb ("self-praise; to make a noise like a publisher"); bromide (trite saying); and goop (child with beastly manners). A few that never caught on: ivog ("food on the face; unconscious adornment of the person"); slub ("a mild indisposition which does not incapacitate"); quoob ("a person or thing obviously out of place").

Died. Jacob Homer, 96, last survivor of General George A. Custer's historic 7th Regiment, which was massacred at the battle of Little Big Horn in 1876; of pneumonia; in Bismarck, N. Dak. A New Yorker who jo:ned the Army to see the West, he survived the battle because he was not there--there weren't enough horses to go around, and he had to stay behind when Custer made his last stand.

*Cinq Ans Apres Ah, yes, I wrote "The Purple Cow."

I'm sorry now I wrote it. But I can tell you anyhow

I'll kill you if you quote it!

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