Milestones Nov. 26, 2001

RETIRING. MARK MCGWIRE, 38, St. Louis Cardinals slugger who was first to hit 70 homers in a season, beating Roger Maris’ 1961 record of 61. His record stood until this year, when Barry Bonds hit 73. An injured, frustrated McGwire told reporters he was no longer able to perform “at a level equal to what [the Cardinals] would be paying me.”

ELECTED. MANNY DIAZ, 47, previously obscure lawyer who rose to fame by representing the relatives of temporary Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez–a fact appreciated by many of Miami’s 123,000 Cuban Americans, whose votes were decisive; as mayor of Miami.

DIED. CARRIE DONOVAN, 73, astute, flamboyant fashionista who won new fans by appearing–with her trademark oversize glasses and a dog, Magic–in recent TV ads for Old Navy; of pulmonary illness; in New York City. An early advocate of Donna Karan and an editor for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and the New York Times, Donovan appreciated highbrow and lowbrow fashion. Her mentor Diana Vreeland once told her, “My dear, you’ve got the common touch.”

DIED. RAY KELLY, 83, chum and mascot to Babe Ruth, whom he called a “second father”; of a heart attack; in Valley Cottage, N.Y. Ruth noticed Kelly one day as the three-year-old was playing catch with his dad in Manhattan’s Riverside Park. For the next decade, “Little Ray” was a bench-warming lucky charm for the Yankees.

DIED. PEGGY MOUNT, 85, British actress best known for playing strong, shrewish women on the stage and screen and television; in London. She was the imposing mother-in-law in Sailor Beware, a West End hit later made into a movie, and co-starred in such film comedies as The Naked Truth and Hotel Paradiso.

DIED. NATHAN PUSEY, 94, president of Harvard who saw the university through the expansionist 1950s and ’60s; in New York City. The Iowa-born Harvard alum created “need-blind” admissions and oversaw the near tripling of its administrative and teaching staff–including many women. He came under fire in 1969, when he called in police to oust from a campus building protesters from the radical Students for a Democratic Society. Pusey announced his retirement the next year.