Milestones, May 24, 1971

Born. To Herbert Khaury (alias Tiny Tim), fortyish falsetto singer, and Victoria May (“Miss Vicki”) Khaury, 19; their first child, a daughter; in Manhattan. Name: Tulip Victoria.

Married. Mick Jagger, 27, lead singer of the Rolling Stones; and Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, 26, daughter of a Nicaraguan diplomat; both for the first time; in Saint-Tropez, France.

Died. Sir Tyrone Guthrie, 70, theatrical producer, director and playwright; in Newbliss, Ireland. At 6 ft. 5 in., a towering figure physically as well as artistically, Sir Tyrone began his long affiliation with the Old Vic in 1933. Later he helped launch the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ont., and the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. He was an innovator who occasionally armed the bard’s soldiers with machine guns and once staged Troilus and Cressida as an Edwardian piece, replacing Greeks with Prussians. Though he also directed Broadway hits, Sir Tyrone castigated the Great White Way as “a murderous, vulgar jungle.”

Died. Sean Lemass, 71, Prime Minister of the Irish Republic from 1959 to 1966; in Dublin. The protégé of Eamon de Valera, Lemass graduated to Parliament from the crucible of the Black and Tan conflict. At 16 he holed up with Irish Republican Army soldiers in Dublin’s General Post Office during the Easter Rebellion of 1916. Fifteen rebels were shot and thousands deported after British shells ended the uprising, but Lemass was released. According to Dublin legend, “the cops gave him a kick in the arse and told him to go home to his Mom.” He went underground instead. When De Valera’s Fianna Fail Party assumed power in 1932, Lemass became the youngest member of the Cabinet. As Prime Minister he tore away at the economic aspects of what he called the Green Curtain—the high tariffs and low level of industrialization that had impeded Ireland’s development.

Died. Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas, 81, who at the age of eight inspired one of the most durable editorials in history; in Valatie, N.Y. In 1897, she wrote to the New York Sun with a Yuletide question. The answer was Francis P. Church’s editorial: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.” Mrs. Douglas, who had a daughter, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, served as a teacher and principal in New York City’s public schools. Frequently called upon to read Church’s reply around Christmas, she once remarked, “I am anonymous from January to November.”