RECOVERING. Jimmy Carter, 59, noted chairmaker, author (Keeping Faith) and former U.S. President; after hospitalization in Atlanta; from minor surgery to remove hemorrhoids; in Plains, Ga.

PETITION DENIED. To Elizabeth Bouvia, 26, cerebral palsy victim who has fought for the right to starve herself to death in a hospital because she is tired of life in "a useless body"; by a California Supreme Court affirmation of earlier decisions to throw out her plea.

ARRESTED. Paul McCartney, 41, megarich ex-Beatle and rock video star (Say Say Say, Pipes of Peace), and his wife Linda McCartney, 42; both for possession of marijuana, he for the fourth time in twelve years, she for the first time since 1975; in Barbados. Fined $100 each, the McCartneys returned to London, where Linda was arrested at Heathrow Airport, again on possession charges. Said McCartney: "I'd like to see it [pot] decriminalized."

DIED. Johnny Weissmuller, 79, record-setting swimmer (five Olympic gold medals) turned cinematic Tarzan (twelve movies); in Acapulco, Mexico. "They gave me a G-string," he claimed of his MGM bosses, "and said, 'Can you climb a tree?'" Weissmuller, the archetypal Hollywood hunk, led an extravagantly untidy personal life highlighted by five failed marriages and a portfolio of foolish business ventures.

DIED. John Coventry Smith, 80, a leader of the U.S. Protestant missionary movement and a former president of the World Council of Churches; after a heart attack; in Abington, Pa. Smith, a Presbyterian, played a vital role in the postwar movements toward interdenominational unity and the independence of Third World churches.

DIED. Gardner D. Stout, 80, investment banker and president emeritus of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City; in Stamford, Conn. A wildlife enthusiast, he raised about $25 million for the institution and opened four notable exhibition halls during his tenure as unsalaried president (1968-75).

DIED. Maurice Be Monte, 87, French navigator and radio operator on the first nonstop Paris-to-New York transatlantic flight; in Paris. In 1930 Bellonte and Pilot Dieu-donne Costes reversed Charles Lindbergh's 1927 course in their crimson Bre-guet sesquiplane Question Mark. Taking off from Le Bourget airfield, they landed 37 hr. 18 min. and 3,600 miles later at Curtiss Field in Valley Stream, N.Y.

DIED. Tran Van Huu, 87, Prime Minister of Viet Nam from 1950 to 1952; in Paris. Huu, a wealthy financier, based his pro-French Vietnamese government on his country's small upper class, exiled his ablest political associates and ignored French pleas to fight insurgent forces of the Communist Viet Minh. In June 1952 Huu was fired by Viet Nam's chief of state, the Emperor Bao Dai.