Died. Wendell Smith, 58, sportswriter and broadcaster who helped promote baseball's racial integration; of cancer; in Chicago. Early in 1945, Smith took Jackie Robinson and two other black players to open tryouts with the Boston Red Sox. When the Red Sox demurred, Smith stopped off in Brooklyn to report the incident to the Dodgers' Branch Rickey, who sent his own scouts out for a look and hired Robinson. Later, at the Chicago American as the first full-time black sportswriter on a major daily, Smith led a successful fight to desegregate baseball housing facilities in the South.

Died. Jimmy Lytell, 67, Brooklyn-born bandleader who played jazz clarinet professionally by age 14, formed his own Dixieland jazz band during the 1920s and performed as many as 17 radio shows a week during the 1940s; in Kings Point, N.Y.

Died. Neil H. McElroy, 68, Defense Secretary during the second Eisenhower Administration; of cancer; in Cincinnati. McElroy was president of Procter & Gamble when Eisenhower chose him for the Pentagon in 1957. During his tenure the U.S. accelerated its space and missile programs. It was McElroy who first predicted a "missile gap." Ironically, the Democrats seized the issue in the 1960 election, but after taking office had to admit that the gap was nonexistent.

Died. Antonio Segni, 81, former President of Italy; in Rome. A longtime Christian Democratic stalwart, Segni was twice Premier and several times a Cabinet minister. He was also a gentleman farmer, which did not stop him from devising a controversial land reform program that cost him one-fourth of his own land. He was elected President in 1962, but a stroke forced him to step down in 1964.

Died. Sir Compton Mackenzie, 89, prolific, puckish patriarch of British letters; in Edinburgh. Though successful movies (Sylvia Scarlett, Tight Little Island) were adapted from Mackenzie works, the novel Sinister Street, banned as too risque when it first appeared in 1913, remained the most popular of his more than 100 books. He wrote controversial nonfiction as well: Greek Memories (1932) earned him a -L-100 fine for revealing official documents from his tenure as a World War I intelligence agent, and The Windsor Tapestry (1938) created a sensation with its passionate defense of Edward VIII's abdication. Mackenzie held off until age 80 to begin his ten-volume My Life and Times, and confessed that he had to reread his early works "because I can't remember how they come out. I'm amazed to find how good they are."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.