Died. Rocky Marciano, 45, the "Brockton Blockbuster," former world heavyweight champion and one of the prize ring's alltime greats; in the crash of a light plane; near Des Moines. The son of a Brockton, Mass., factory worker, Marciano wanted to be a professional baseball player but lacked the whiplash arm for that game. His chunky muscles were perfect for boxing, though, and what he lacked in finesse he more than made up in battering-ram power. After turning pro in 1947, he piled up 42 straight victories, most of them by knockouts, before earning a title bout with Champion Jersey Joe Walcott in 1952. "This kid can't fight," scoffed Walcott. "If I don't whip him, take my name out of the record books." Thirteen rounds later, Walcott was out, knocked senseless by a classic right. Marciano successfully defended his title six times before retiring in 1956, after a career that was as notable for his gentlemanly manners outside the ring as for his ferocity inside it.

Died. Dr. David Karnofsky, 55, one of the world's outstanding researchers in the discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of cancer; of cancer; in Ellsworth, Me. While working on chemical warfare during World War II, Karnofsky theorized that mustard gas and similar agents might be tamed and used effectively in treating cancer. With singular dedication, he set about proving his theory by conducting extensive experiments that eventually provided the medical world with a whole new concept of cancer therapy. The cost may have been his own life: doctors suspect that Karnofsky's death resulted from his exposure to the chemicals that he was studying.

Died. Right Reverend James A. Pike, 56, former Episcopal Bishop of California and one of the most controversial U.S. churchmen since World War II (see RELIGION).

Died. Josh White, 61, Negro blues and folk singer, whose laments in the 1940s led to a rebirth of folk music in the U.S.; during heart surgery; in Manhasset, N.Y. Born in Greenville, S.C., White spent his youth roaming through the South with such master bluesmen as Joel Taggart and Blind Lemon Jefferson. In 1941, he burst on the scene with Chain Gang, a bestselling record album of songs from the Georgia prison farms. Before long, he had scores of imitators around the country, and became a nightclub fixture--casually hunched over his guitar, a burning cigarette tucked behind one ear--singing his favorites, Hard-Time Blues, John Henry and One Meat Ball.

Died. Erika Mann, 63, German-born daughter of Novelist Thomas Mann, her self a highly regarded author noted for her powerfully anti-Nazi writings in the 1930s; of a brain tumor; in Zurich, Switzerland. Like her Nobel prizewinning father, Miss Mann was quick to speak out against Hitlerism, in 1933 was forced to flee Germany after writing and producing a satirical anti-Nazi revue, The Pepper mill. Beginning in 1936, she frequently traveled in the U.S., where she scathingly attacked the Nazis in School for Barbarians, Escape to Life and The Lights Go Down.

Died. Drew Pearson, 71, U.S. journalism's most influential and controversial muckraker (see PRESS).

Died. Norman Washington Manley, 76, former Prime Minister of Jamaica; of a heart attack; in Kingston. As founder of the People's National Party in 1938, then as the island's top executive from 1955 to 1962, Oxford-educated Manley played a primary role in Jamaica's rise from a stagnant British Crown colony to political independence and economic wellbeing. He was among the first and foremost organizers of a campaign to attract both tourists and industry to bolster the island's historic one-crop sugar trade. The program was so successful that today Jamaica is one of the world's major producers of bauxite for aluminum and tourism is becoming a $100 million-a-year industry.

Died. Betty Gram Swing, 76, longtime champion of women's rights; of heart disease; in Norwalk, Conn. A leader of the National Women's Party, Mrs. Swing was a familiar figure in picket lines on both sides of the Atlantic during and after World War I. Arrested for leading a suffragette demonstration at the White House in 1917, she countered by staging an eight-day hunger strike in jail, was released and immediately got herself arrested again in Boston. In the 1920s she carried her campaign to France (jail again) and to England, where she enlisted Bertrand Russell and H. G. Wells in her cause.

Died. Arthur Upham Pope, 88, the world's foremost authority on ancient Persian art and culture; of a heart attack; in Shiraz, Iran. Pope devoted his life to studying, lecturing and writing about the Persian civilization. In London in 1931, he organized the greatest exhibit of Persian art ever held. His massive six-volume Survey of Persian Art (1938) is still the definitive work in its field. "Turn back! Turn back!" he once cried. "Look to the ancients. Old Persia can save us--those remarkable people, with their gallantry, their decorum, their selfdiscipline, their sensitivity, their humanity, their productivity, their animation, their originality, their vitality, their warmth, their transcendent piety."

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