Milestones

By Tam Gray, Jodie Morse, Michele Orecklin, Bill Saporito, Neang Seng, Joel Stein and Deborah Wells

DIED. ALFRED KAZIN, 83, one of his generation's most eloquent literary critics; in New York City. The Brooklyn-born Kazin stumbled onto his calling seemingly by accident: while riding in a subway in 1934 he was so incensed by a New York Times book review that he got off at Times Square to confront the critic face to face. Kazin's thoughtful critiques continued in On Native Grounds, his seminal 1942 appraisal of American writers, and in countless other essays, reviews and memoirs dwelling in depth on New York, Judaism and above all literature, the three topics dearest to Kazin's heart.

DIED. SHIRLEY POVICH, 92, irrepressible Washington Post sports columnist whose career stats--more than 15,000 articles in seven decades--made him the Cal Ripken of the beat; in Washington. Povich scored his first byline in 1924 and was soon a breakfast staple for Washington's sports addicts: President Nixon called his column "the only reason" to read the Post. But Povich's prose transcended the play-by-play; he championed such causes as integration, writing in 1946: "Four hundred and fifty-five years after Columbus eagerly discovered America, major league baseball reluctantly discovered the American Negro."

DIED. SAM YORTY, 88, maverick former mayor of Los Angeles; in the city he governed during the stormy '60s. Yorty, a master at grandstanding, flip-flopped from liberal Democrat to hard-line conservative. Urging "integration without inundation," he inspired the most ire with his racial views. After three turbulent terms, he was unseated by Tom Bradley, the city's first black mayor.

DIED. DOROTHY STICKNEY, 101, original spouse in Broadway's longest-running play, the fusty comedy Life with Father; in Manhattan. Stickney starred with Howard Lindsay, the play's co-author and her real-life husband. In 1939 the couple left a glitch-filled opening night in tears, but audiences adored the play's domestic drollery, sitting through seven years and some 3,200 performances.