Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Val Castronovo, Matthew Cooper, Andrew Goldstein, Tam Gray, Lina Lofaro, Desa Philadelphia and Chris Taylor

DIED. CARLA HOCHHALTER, 48, mother of Anne Marie, 17, a student paralyzed in the April shootings at Columbine High; of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; in Englewood, Colo. At a pawnshop, Hochhalter asked to see a .38-cal. revolver, then surreptitiously loaded the gun with bullets she had brought with her before shooting herself in the right temple. Just days before, her daughter had finally regained some movement in her legs.

DIED. ELLA MAE MORSE, 75, ebullient, genre-defying vocalist whose Cow-Cow Boogie was Capitol Records' first million-selling hit; in Bullhead City, Ariz. Among Morse's other signatures were House of Blue Lights, Shoo-Shoo Baby, and Mister Five by Five.

DIED. JACK LYNCH, 82, former Irish Prime Minister who chose not to send troops to protect Catholics in Northern Ireland as violence erupted in 1969; in Dublin. He began the tension easing between north and south that led to 1998's peace agreement.

DIED. BENNO SCHMIDT, 86, pioneer venture capitalist, health-policy adviser to several Presidents and father of former Yale president Benno C. Schmidt Jr.; in New York City. A J.H. Whitney partner, Schmidt backed risky start-ups, including Minute Maid orange juice--which he at first deemed "tinny" in taste.

DIED. CALVIN GRIFFITH, 87, parsimonious owner of baseball's Minnesota Twins--until 1960 the Washington Senators; in Minneapolis. His comments in 1978 on moving the team--which included the assertion that Washington's "black people...put up such a chant they'll scare you to death"--led future Hall of Famer Rod Carew to bolt for the California Angels the next year.

DIED. NATHALIE SARRAUTE, 99, experimental novelist whose book Tropisms (1939) jump-started the Roman Nouveau move ment; in Cherence, France. She ignored traditional approaches to plot and character, focusing on fleeting human reactions she called "movements...on the border of our consciousness."