Milestones, Apr. 2, 1951

Marriage Revealed. Ezzard Charles, 29, world heavyweight boxing champion; and his longtime friend, Gladys (“Gee Gee”) Gartrell, 22, onetime elevator operator; on Dec. 30, 1949; in New Kensington, Pa. Also revealed: the birth (on Feb. 13) of their first child, a daughter. Name: Deborah. Weight: 7 lbs. 8 oz.

Died. Lieut. General José Enrique Varela, 59, one of Dictator Franco’s top generals during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), and once considered his likeliest successor; of leukemia; in Tetuán, Spanish Morocco. During the Spanish war, Varela led the Fascists to a decisive victory at Toledo, later became War Minister. Pro-monarchist and anti-Axis, he was fired in 1942 after falling out with the Falange. Since 1945, Varela had been Spain’s colonial ruler in Morocco.

Died. Edward Trowbridge (“Eddie”) Collins, 63, star of the Philadelphia Athletics’ “hundred-thousand-dollar infield” (1906-14), described by Connie Mack as “the greatest second baseman who ever lived”; of heart disease; in Boston. Among his records: a lifetime batting average of .333; the longest stint as a player (25 years; 3,313 hits in 2,826 games); highest number of stolen bases in a game (6); greatest number of years leading the American League in fielding (9).

Died. The Rev. James R. Cox, 65, Pittsburgh’s Roman Catholic “pastor of the poor,” who set up a soup kitchen and a tar-papered “Shantytown” for depression victims, led some 10,000 of them (in 1,000 cars and trucks) in a protest march on Washington in January 1932; of a cerebral hemorrhage; in Pittsburgh. On the arrival of “Cox’s Army”* in Washington, Father Cox had a 20-minute chat with President Hoover (who gave “intense sympathy”), went on to form his short-lived Jobless Party, was briefly its candidate for President, gave up to support Candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Died. Edmund Ezra Day, 67, president of Cornell (1937-49), before that social-sciences director of the Rockefeller Foundation; of a heart attack during a morning drive; in Ithaca, N.Y. A Dartmouth man (’05), Day, a calmly efficient president, headed Cornell during its period of greatest growth, saw its faculty almost doubled.

Died. Willem Mengelberg, 79, who made the Concertgebouw Orchestra one of the world’s best, once conducted the New York Philharmonic-Symphony (1921-30), was barred from conducting in The Netherlands for his welcome to the Nazis (“All great musicians were Germans”); in Zuort, Switzerland.

*Not to be confused with “Coxey’s Army” of 300, led by Jacob Coxey in 1894 for the same purpose.