Milestones, Jun. 10, 1935

Born To Anton Lang Jr., German professor at Georgetown University, son of the onetime Christus of the Oberammergau Passion Play; and Klara Mayr Lang, onetime Magdalene of the Passion Play: twin daughters, each weighing 6 lb.; in Washington, D. C.

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Seeking Divorce. Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, 42, author (The Good Earth, Sons, House Divided), onetime Presbyterian mission teacher in China, resigned because of her religious liberalism (TIME, May 8, 1933); from John Lossing Buck, onetime agricultural missionary; in Reno. She was reported planning to marry President Richard John Walsh of John Day Co., who published her Pulitzer-Prize-winning The Good Earth.

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Died, Sarah Haardt Mencken, 37, essayist, novelist (The Making of a Lady), wife of famed Baltimore Critic H. L. Mencken; after long illness; in Baltimore.

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Died, Rear Admiral Washington Lee Capps, 71, retired, onetime Chief Constructor of the U. S. Navy, chief of its Bureau of Construction and Repair from 1903 to 1910; of heart disease; in Washington. On Admiral Dewey’s staff during the Spanish-American War, he supervised raising and repairing Spanish vessels captured in the battle of Manila Bay. As Chief Constructor he evolved the all-big-gun ship, the skeleton mast which became a distinctive feature of U. S. warcraft.

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Died, John Armstrong Chaloner (Chanler), 72, eccentric brother of seven rich descendants of Peter Stuyvesant and John Jacob Astor—the late Artist Robert Armstrong (“Sheriff Bob”), onetime Lieutenant Governor of New York Lewis Stuyvesant, onetime Congressman William Astor, Winthrop Astor Chanler, Mrs. John Jay Chapman, Mrs. Richard Aldrich, Mrs. Christopher Temple Emmet; of cancer; in Charlottesville, Va. Because of business affairs and his marriage to author Amelie Rives (now Princess Troubetzkoy), Brother John quarreled with his family, three of whom got him committed to Bloomingdale Hospital in 1897. He escaped to Virginia, had himself declared sane by the courts of that state and of North Carolina. It took Chaloner (he had adopted the old form of the family name) 22 years to obtain legal sanity and control of his $1,500,000 estate in New York. When Brother Bob settled $200,000 on beauteous Soprano Lina Cavalieri who had divorced him, Brother John leaped onto every front page with his famed telegram: WHO’S LOONY NOW?

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Died, William Haynes Truesdale, 83. retired president and board chairman of Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad ; of bronchial pneumonia; in Greenwich, Conn. Harddriving, he opposed legislative restrictions on railroads, wage increases and eight-hour-day laws. During his term (1899-1925) D. L. & W. paid $192,000,000 in cash dividends on a property worth $50,000,000 in 1900.