Milestones, Oct. 27, 1952

Divorced. By Arlene Dahl, 27, titian-haired cinemactress (The Outriders, Scene of the Crime): Lex Barker, 33, Hollywood’s tenth “Tarzan,” after charging that he called her “a hick from Minnesota” because she refused a predinner cocktail; after 18 months of marriage, no children; in Hollywood.

Died. David Archibald Smart, 60, Omaha-born newspaper advertising salesman, who had his first publishing success as cofounder (with William Hobart Weintraub) in 1931 of a clothing-trade journal, Apparel Arts, launched Esquire in 1933, Coronet in 1936; of acute nephrosis; in Chicago.

Died. Francis Patrick Matthews, 65, onetime Ambassador to Ireland (1951-52) and Secretary of the Navy (1949-51), who confessed that his only nautical experience was with “a rowboat at my summer home”; of a heart attack; in Omaha. His big job as Navy Secretary: joining President Truman in quelling the 1949 “revolt of the admirals,” who feared loss of Navy power in the new strategic war planning. Matthews ousted Admiral Louis E. Denfeld as Chief of Naval Operations and, distrusting Navy channels, personally summoned to Washington (by commercial airline in civilian clothes) the Mediterranean’s Sixth Task Fleet Commander Admiral Forrest P. Sherman.

Died. Leonard Kimball Nicholson, 71, longtime editor (1922-52) of the New Orleans Times-Picayune and a director (1933-51) of the Associated Press; of a heart ailment; in New Orleans.

Died. Bishop Johann Wilhelm Ernst Sommer, 71, head (since 1946) of the Methodist Church in Germany, an organizer of the Council of Evangelical Churches of Germany, chairman of a 1945 Methodist congress in Frankfurt which passed resolutions of “guilt and repentance” for Germany’s war guilt; after long illness; in Zurich, Switzerland.

Died. Mme. Berta Morena, 74, German-born, oldtime soprano of the Munich Opera (1898-1924) and the Metropolitan Opera (1908-12; 1924-25), famed for her good looks and spectacular voice (her specialty: Wagner); after long illness; at her home in Rottach, Germany.

Died. Admiral Keisuke Okada, 84, twice (1927-29, 1932-33) Japan’s Navy Minister, onetime (1934-36) Prime Minister of Japan who opposed World War II; tried to brake Japan’s runaway war machine; of pneumonia; in Tokyo.

Died. Baha Alchesay, 87, last hereditary chief of the Apache Indians (since the Apaches have now become accustomed to government by elected council members, Baha named no successor); at Whiteriver, Ariz.