Monday, Dec. 28, 1981
IMAGES: Farewell
Omar Bradley, 88, first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and last of the five-star generals, whose 69-year military career was the longest in U.S. history. An inconspicuous, Washington-based lieutenant colonel with no combat experience at the start of World War II, he led U.S. forces in some of the most decisive campaigns of the war and was known as the "G.I.'s general" because of his genuine concern for the men he commanded.
Moshe Dayan, 66, soldier-statesman who was an architect of Israel's military victories in 1956 and 1967 and also, while Foreign Minister from 1977 to 1979, of the Camp David accords that led to peace with Egypt. As Defense Minister in 1973, he was accused of leaving Israel vulnerable to surprise attack in the October War. Always something of a maverick, Dayan, who lost an eye fighting the Vichy French in Syria in 1941, became a passionate advocate of coexistence between Jew and Arab.
Will Durant, 96, Pulitzer-prizewinning historian and "biographer of mankind." His monumental, eleven-volume The Story of Civilization, one of the most popular history series ever published, was written with his wife of 68 years, Ariel, 83, who died just 13 days earlier.
William Holden, 63, whose rugged good looks and raspy baritone graced more than 50 films, including Sunset Boulevard, Picnic, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Network. He won an Oscar in 1953 for his hard-bitten prisoner of war in Stalag 17.
Joe Louis, 66, the "Brown Bomber," one of the best heavyweights ever, whose thunderous punch leveled the likes of James J. Braddock, Billy Conn and Tony Galento. In a memorable vengeance match with racist overtones that was over in a lightning 2 min. 4 sec. of the first round, he crushed Germany's Max Schmeling in 1938. As champ from 1937 to 1949, he defended his title a record 25 times, but never pocketed the monster purses common today and spent years in debt.
Bob Marley, 36, Jamaican prince of reggae, the distinctive, pulsing Caribbean blend of calypso and soul music that carries a weighty message of black pride, peace and Rastafarian religion. Marley rose from the slums of Kingston to become a national hero and international star.
Robert Moses, 92, master builder and powerbroker of New York City and State for 50 years, whose monuments include 35 highways, twelve bridges, more than 2.5 million acres of park land, Lincoln Center and the 1964-65 World's Fair. His vision inspired the reshaping--some said misshaping--of urban and suburban space across America.
Anwar Sadat, 62, President of Egypt, who led his country to war against Israel in 1973, then launched a peace initiative climaxed by one of the most dramatic gestures ever made by a head of state, his "sacred mission" to Jerusalem in 1977 to proclaim his willingness "to live in permanent peace and justice." The 1978 Camp David accords made him the only Arab leader to make peace with the Jewish state, but also made him anathema to many of his countrymen and culminated in his assassination.
William Saroyan, 72, prolific Armenian-American writer whose energetic works, notably the 1939 Pulitzer-prize play The Time of Your Life and the 1942 novel The Human Comedy, celebrated the vitality and diversity of the American spirit.
Albert Speer, 76, Adolf Hitler's architect and builder of monuments to the Third Reich who, as Minister of Armaments and War Production, used slave labor to keep the German war machine running. The only Nazi leader to admit his guilt at the Nuremberg war-crimes trials, he served 20 years before his release in 1966.
Lowell Thomas, 89, peripatetic journalist and pioneering broadcaster who wrote more than 50 books about his globetrotting experiences. His lecture tours and movie narrations, but mostly his 50 years as a radio newscaster, caused him, as he grandiloquently put it, to be "heard by more people than any voice in history."
Omar Torrijos Herrera, 52, an ebullient soldier who, after leading a 1968 coup, became Panama's de facto strongman, though he served as official chief of government only from 1972 to 1978. A mystery figure of no known ideology but possessing formidable political ability, he employed shrewd negotiating skills and a talent for manipulating volatile nationalist sentiment to bring about the 1977-78 treaties restoring the Panama Canal Zone to his country's sovereignty.
Natalie Wood, 43, who, in a career that began at age 4, acted in 45 films, received three Academy Award nominations. Growing into a wholesome sensuousness, she became one of the few child actresses to make the transition to adult stardom.
Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, 79, Roman Catholic Primate of Poland for more than 30 years, fiery advocate of the faith and defiant symbol of Polish nationalism under Soviet-dominated Communist regimes. An astute political infighter and vigorous defender of social and political rights, he mastered a precarious form of cooperation with the commissars that preserved the church's independence and helped pave the way for the development of the Solidarity trade-union federation.
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