Monday, Jun. 04, 1956
Married. Anita Ekberg, 24, bosomy, Swedish-born cinemactress (Artists and, Models, Blood Alley); and Anthony Steel, 36, British cinemactor (Something Money Can't Buy); she for the first time, he for the second; in Florence, Italy.
Married. Audrey Meadows, 31, red-haired stage actress (Top Banana), long-suffering TV wife of Comedian Jackie ("The Honeymooners") Gleason; and Randolph Rouse, 37, Washington realtor; both for the first time; in Manhattan.
Died. Hortense Monath, 51, topflight concert pianist, program director and co-founder (in 1936) of Manhattan's famed New Friends of Music, first American woman pianist to solo with the NBC Symphony (1941); in Manhattan.
Died. Norman ("Red") Strader. 53, pint-sized (less than 150 Ibs.) fullback in the mid-20's at California's St. Mary's College, coach at St. Mary's (1932-41), later for the New York Yankees (1948-50) and the San Francisco 4gers (1955); of a heart attack; in Berkeley, Calif.
Died. Al Simmons (real name: Aloysius Harry Szymanski), 53, member (since 1953) of Baseball's Hall of Fame, often sold batting great (lifetime average: .334) whose famed foot-in-the-bucket stance was the nemesis of Big League pitchers for most of his 21-season career (1924-44); of a heart attack; in Milwaukee. As a Philadelphia outfielder in the heyday of Connie Mack's Athletics, Simmons hit over .300 for eleven straight seasons, copped the American League batting title in 1930 (.381) and 1931 (.390).
Died. Guy Bridges Kibbee, 70, bottle-bald comedian of stage (Torch Song) and screen (Babbitt, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), best known to moviegoers for his "Scattergood Baines" series and early Shirley Temple films; of Parkinson's disease; in East Islip, N.Y.
Died. Andre Eugene Maurice Chariot, 73, sometime Hollywood cinemactor (The Constant Nymph), longtime (1924-41) producer of Britain's famed Chariot's Revue; in Hollywood.
Died. Frederick Joubert ("Fritz") Duquesne, 78, South African-born mastermind of one of the biggest (33 men and women) spy networks ever uncovered in the U.S., inveterate Anglophobe, who in 1942 was sentenced to 18 years in prison for Nazi espionage; in a New York City hospital on Welfare Island. A soldier of fortune who played his crafty hand against England for more than 40 years, Duquesne dated his checkered career as international intriguer back to the Boer War (1899-1902). A cool, cunning poseur, he signed his reports to Germany with a rubber-stamp cat's paw, claimed to have plotted the sinking (1916) of Lord Kitchener's cruiser Hampshire. Chief G-man J. Edgar Hoover called his concerted FBI swoop (in 1941) on Duquesne's New York City mob the greatest spy roundup in U.S. history.
Died. Finis James Garrett, 80, longtime (1905-29) Democratic Congressman from Tennessee's Ninth District, three-time minority floor leader of the House (1923-29), outspoken States' Rightist, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (1937-55); in Washington. Finis Garrett led the fight for the prewar policies of Woodrow Wilson, who hailed him as "the strongest man in our ranks," was instrumental in the defeat of a Wilson-opposed resolution which would have warned "neutral" America to keep off the high seas at a time when German U-boats were sinking Allied ships.
Died. Lucinda ("Miss Lu") Rayburn, 80, sister and longtime official hostess of staunch bachelor and Texas-Democrat House Speaker Sam Rayburn; in Bonham, Tex. Miss Lu's last request: "No flowers please. I've had my flowers."
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