Milestones Feb. 9, 2004

RELEASED. LIONEL TATE, 16, after serving three years in prison for the murder of a 6-year-old playmate when he was 12; in West Palm Beach, Fla. When Tate, the youngest defendant in the country to receive a life sentence, had his first-degree murder conviction overturned on appeal, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in return for a sentence of time served. He claimed he killed Tiffany Eunick accidentally while imitating wrestling moves from TV, but now says he jumped from a staircase and accidentally landed on her chest.

DIED. MARY-ELLIS BUNIM, 57, co-creator of The Real World, which helped launch the current wave of TV reality shows; of cancer; in Los Angeles. After beginning her career in soap operas, she teamed in 1990 with Jonathan Murray to create the MTV real-life soap opera, following it up with such shows as Road Rules and this season’s The Simple Life.

DIED. ALEXANDRA RIPLEY, 70, author of Scarlett, the sanctioned sequel to Gone With the Wind; of unspecified natural causes; in Richmond, Va. She had written five historical novels before being selected by the estate of Margaret Mitchell to pen a sequel to the beloved Civil War saga. Published in 1991, Scarlett got poor reviews but spent 34 weeks on the best-seller list.

DIED. LLOYD BUCHER, 76, former U.S. Navy commander of the U.S.S. Pueblo, whose crew was held captive by North Korea for 11 months in 1968; in San Diego. The Pueblo was in international waters off the coast of North Korea when it was surrounded and fired on by North Korean torpedo boats; one sailor was killed and 10 wounded, including Bucher. After giving up without resisting, Bucher and the crew spent nearly a year in harsh captivity before a negotiated settlement brought them home. A Navy court later recommended that Bucher be court-martialed for surrendering the ship without firing a shot, but Navy Secretary John J. Chafee overruled the decision, saying the men of the Pueblo had suffered enough.

DIED. JANET FRAME, 79, whose intense explorations of mental illness made her one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed authors; of leukemia; in Dunedin, New Zealand. After suffering a breakdown that was misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, she spent eight years in two mental hospitals; she was about to undergo a lobotomy when a hospital worker read that her work had won a literary prize. She went on to publish 12 novels, as well as poetry, story collections and a three-volume autobiography.

DIED. ELROY (Crazylegs) HIRSCH, 80, Hall of Fame receiver for the Los Angeles Rams; in Madison, Wis. After three injury-plagued years with the Chicago Rockets, he became a star after the Rams switched him from running back to split end. During the team’s 1951 championship season, he caught 10 touchdown passes.

DIED. FANNY BLANKERS-KOEN, 85, Dutch homemaker who won four gold medals in track and field at the 1948 Olympics, the most ever in one Olympics by a woman. For the London Games, she trained–in the less intense manner of amateur athletes of the era–two hours a day, twice a week, with her two young children in tow. At 30, she was the oldest woman on the track–and the fastest.