BORN. To James Dickey, 58, Southern poet and novelist (Deliverance), and his wife Deborah, 29, a girl, her first child, his third; in Columbia, S.C.; weight 5 lbs. 5 oz. Name: Bronwen Elaine.

DIED. James Rausch, 52, bishop of the diocese of Phoenix who, as general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops from 1973 to 1977, became a leading spokesman for liberal factions and helped propose such progressive resolutions as calls for a married priesthood and the ordination of women; of a heart attack; in Phoenix.

DIED. William Saroyan, 72, prolific Armenian-American novelist, playwright and short story writer who strove to convey the romance and vitality of American life in such works as the 1939 Pulitzer-prize winning play, The Time of Your Life, and the 1943 novel, The Hu man Comedy; of cancer; in Fresno, Calif. (see THEATER).

DIED. Ross Allen, 73, noted herpetologist who in 1929 founded Ross Allen's Reptile Institute, a research center at Silver Springs, Fla., and who survived eleven bites from the lethal likes of rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouth snakes; of cancer; in Gainesville, Fla. A stand-in for Johnny Weissmuller in the Tarzan movies of the 1930s and '40s, Allen was in the final stages of building a million-dollar tourist attraction called Alligator Town, scheduled to open this summer near Lake City, Fla.

DIED. Arthur O'Connell, 73, veteran character actor twice nominated for Academy Awards for best supporting actor, for his role as Rosalind Russell's reluctant suitor in Picnic (1956) and for his portrayal of Jimmy Stewart's law partner in Anat omy of a Murder (1959); of Alzheimer's disease; in Los Angeles.

DIED. Jeannette Piccard, 86, pioneering balloonist who, along with her late husband Swiss Scientist Jean Piccard, became the first woman to probe the stratosphere in a balloon flight over Lake Erie in 1934, and who 40 years later became one of the first American women to be ordained an Episcopal priest; of cancer; in Minneapolis.

DIED. Harry Vaughan, 87, retired Army major general who as military aide and loyal adviser to President Harry Truman from 1945 to 1953 embroiled his boss in a number of embarrassing controversies, among them receiving seven deep freezers from lobbyists in 1945 and three years later for accepting a medal from Argentina's Juan Peron; of a heart attack; at Fort Belvoir, Va.

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