Monday, Jul. 14, 1997

MILESTONES

APPOINTED. TATYANA DYACHENKO, 37, Boris Yeltsin's forceful daughter, trusted confidant and unofficial keeper who helped steer him to victory in Russia's 1996 election; as an adviser responsible for his image; in Moscow.

ARRESTED. TODD MICHAEL VOLPE, 48, high-wheeling art dealer whose star clientele included Jack Nicholson; on 38 counts of mail and wire fraud; in Waterville Valley, N.H. A connoisseur of turn-of-the-century artwork, Volpe allegedly swindled his clients out of more than $2.5 million by using such tactics as passing off counterfeit works and secretly selling art that was on consignment.

AILING. DESMOND TUTU, 65, South Africa's spiritual conscience; from prostate cancer that has reportedly spread; in New York City.

DIED. JOHNNY COPELAND, 60, the Texas Twister blues guitarist who earned his nickname for his energetic play and roof-raising vocals; after his eighth open-heart surgery; in New York City. He won a 1986 Grammy for collaborating on the electrifying album Showdown!

DIED. WILLIAM TURNBULL JR., 62, iconoclastic architect whose abstract structures complemented their rugged West Coast environments; of undisclosed causes; in Sausalito, Calif. Turnbull's noted Sea Ranch condominium, with its barnlike simplicity, was designed for the rigors of the California coast.

DIED. WILLIAM HICKEY, 69, raspy-voiced actor whose breakthrough role as the one-breath-short-of-death don in Prizzi's Honor won him a 1986 Oscar nomination; of emphysema; in New York City.

DIED. CHARLES WERNER, 88, Pulitzer-prizewinning cartoonist; near Indianapolis, Ind. Werner sketched for the Indianapolis Star for 47 years, but his winning image was done for the Oklahoman. Drawn shortly after the Sudetenland was handed over to Hitler in 1938, it proved sadly prophetic: a scroll marked NOBEL PEACE PRIZE lies beside a gravestone bearing the epitaph CZECHOSLOVAKIA: 1919-1938.

DISINTERRED. CHE GUEVERA, legendary Argentine-born revolutionary; according to the Bolivian government and a Cuban forensics team, which announced that his remains may have been unearthed near Vallegrande, Bolivia. If confirmed, this discovery ends a 30-year hunt for the leftist guerrilla's body.

DIED. ANNIE FRATELLINI, 64, France's first female clown, who founded the nation's first circus school; of cancer; in Paris. Under the Big Top, few could match this funny lady's pratfalls or pedigree: she was descended from circus entertainers of the 19th century.