Married. Laura Louise Shepard, 21, older daughter of Astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American into space; and Army 2nd Lieut. Jonathan Churchill Snyder, 23, a former schoolmate at Principia College, Elsah, Ill.; in a Methodist ceremony in Houston.

Married. Theodore Sorensen, 41, former confidant and speechwriter for both John and Robert Kennedy, who is presently thinking about running for R.F.K.'s Senate seat from New York in 1970; and Gillian Martin, 28, daughter of President Nixon's newly appointed U.S. commissioner on aging; he for the third time; in a nondenominational ceremony in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Divorced. Burt Lancaster, 55, onetime acrobat turned Oscar-winning actor (Elmer Gantry); by Norma Marie Lancaster; on grounds of cruelty; after 22 years of marriage, 5 children; in Santa Monica, Calif.

Died. Willy Ley, 62, German-born author, lecturer and prophet of space travel; of a heart attack; in New York. As early as 1926, Ley was experimenting with rockets and writing about trips to the moon (Trip into Space). When his former countrymen led the way into the space age by firing the first V-2 rockets into London in 1944 he became, almost overnight, one of the most sought-after authorities on rocketry, called upon to advise the Government and writing book after book (Satellites, Rockets and Outer Space, Rockets, Missiles and Men in Space). His death came on the eve of man's scheduled landing on the moon just a year shy of the date he forecast more than 20 years ago.

Died. Westbrook Pegler, 74, newspaper columnist and for nearly 30 years wielder of U.S. journalism's most malevolent pen (see THE PRESS).

Died. Alene Stern Erlanger, 75, dog fancier and breeder of championship poodles, who, as civilian consultant to the quartermaster general from 1942 to 1945, was responsible for the formation and training of America's infantry scout-dog platoons (the K-9 Corps); in Elberon, N.J.

Died. Frank King, 86, cartoonist, creator of the classic comic strip Gasoline Alley; of a heart attack; in Winter Park, Fla. In 1918, King invented Walt Wallet and his auto-buff cronies (later including Skeezix, Phyllis Blossom and many others) as part of a page of drawings for the Chicago Tribune; within a year Gasoline Alley was popular enough to run as a separate feature, recording the trials and triumphs of the Wallet family in what was once called "a quiet, faithful, tender picture of suburban America."

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