Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Sean Gregory, Janice Horowitz, David Robinson and Rebecca Winters

ARRESTED. BRET MICHAEL EDMUNDS, 26, drifter wanted for questioning in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart, 14, from her Salt Lake City, Utah, home; in Martinsburg, W. Va. Edmunds checked in to a hospital there under a phony name after an apparent drug overdose. Officials insist he is not a suspect in the Smart case.

DIED. DARRYL KILE, 33, All-Star pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals; of unknown causes; in a hotel room in Chicago, where the team was to play the Cubs. Kile died four days after leading his team to first place in the National League Central--the second of two blows to the Cardinals last week (see Jack Buck).

DIED. ABU SABAYA, 39, a leader of the Islamic guerrilla group Abu Sayyaf, responsible for the kidnapping of two Americans in the Philippines; reportedly shot in a gun battle at sea with government troops.

DIED. J. CARTER BROWN, 67, patrician populist who, as head of Washington's National Gallery of Art, helped transform America's museums from dusty vaults to extravagant showplaces for the masses; of multiple myeloma; in Boston. During his 23-year tenure, Brown boosted federal funding for the gallery and repositioned it as a rival of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. He pioneered the phenomenon of the blockbuster exhibition with such shows as King Tut and Andrew Wyeth's "Helga" series.

DIED. JACK BUCK, 77, beloved voice of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals for nearly a half-century; in St. Louis. Among the gravelly voiced Hall of Famer's most memorable calls: in 1998, when Mark McGwire tied Roger Maris' single-season record of 61 home runs, Buck exclaimed, "Flight 61, headed for planet Maris."

DIED. ESTHER (EPPIE) LEDERER, 83, the tabloid Freud who, as ANN LANDERS, was the world's most widely syndicated columnist; in Chicago. The elder twin sister of advice maven "Abigail Van Buren," Lederer dispensed a daily dose of common sense to 90 million readers. Homey but frank, she endorsed masturbation as a safe alternative to abstinence and in 1971 cued a flood of letters to Congress urging federal support of cancer research. Before Oprah and Sally, there was Ann--the nation's big sister.

DIED. ROBERT WHITEHEAD, 86, debonair theatrical producer who brought Death of a Salesman, Medea and Orpheus Descending to Broadway and managed to make them commercial successes; in Pound Ridge, N.Y. Whitehead cast the greats, from John Gielgud to Katharine Hepburn.