Milestones

By Tam Gray, Daniel Levy, Jodie Morse, Michele Orecklin, Alain Sanders and Joel Stein

ENGAGED. KATE WINSLET, 23, Titanic star; to film director JIM THREAPLETON, 24. The two have been secretly betrothed since last summer.

SENTENCED. JEREMY STROHMEYER, 20, convicted molester and murderer of seven-year-old Sherrice Iverson; to life in prison without parole; in Las Vegas. Strohmeyer asked for forgiveness but blasted his former friend David Cash for watching the brutal crime without intervening, saying of Cash, "He makes me sick."

DIED. MAYNARD PARKER, 58, editor of Newsweek; of pneumonia that he contracted after treatment for leukemia; in New York City. A distinguished foreign correspondent and hard-driving journalist, he spent 31 years at Newsweek, the last seven as its top editor (see Eulogy, below).

DIED. JOSEPH CATES, 74, Emmy-winning TV impresario who helped create the The $64,000 Question and worked on more than 1,000 made-for-TV specials; in New York City.

DIED. CLEVELAND AMORY, 81, best-selling author and animal lover extraordinaire who fought for the rights of underdogs the world over; in New York City. Amory chronicled his most famous rescue--of his pet cat Polar Bear--in The Cat Who Came for Christmas. But he was also well versed in the habits of two-legged creatures, penning a sardonic series on society's upper crust.

DIED. FRANK YANKOVIC, 83, a.k.a. America's Polka King, maestro of Midwestern dance halls for seven decades who won the first ever Grammy for the folksy musical genre; in New Port Richey, Fla. Yankovic pumped his first accordion at age nine and soon took his signature Slovenian-style polka show on the road. Devoted fans, some known to have ripped off his clothes, won his devotion in return: he played so many one-night stands that he missed the birth of all 10 of his kids.