Milestones: Mar. 1, 1968

Died. 2nd Lieut. Richard W. Pershing, 24, grandson of World War 1’s General of the Armies John J. (“Black Jack”) Pershing; of combat wounds; near Quang Tri, Viet Nam. A Yale graduate who received his Army commission seven months ago, Pershing went to Viet Nam and was leading a patrol in search of a member of his platoon when he was killed in a Viet Cong ambush.

Died. Joe B. Brown, 59, Dallas district judge who presided over Jack Ruby’s 1964 trial for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald; of a heart attack; in Dallas. An easygoing Texan, Brown drew criticism for permitting noisy spats between lawyers and letting cameramen record the verdict on live TV; more serious, he entertained so much questionable testimony that a higher court later struck down the decision and ordered a retrial away from Dallas.

Died. Peter Arno, 64, celebrated cartoonist whose deft barbs sharpened the pages of The New Yorker for 43 years; of emphysema; in Port Chester, N.Y. In hundreds of New Yorker cartoons, the urbane Arno (born Curtis Arnoux Peters) aimed his thrusts at wattled old roues (“Tell me about yourself, your struggles, your dreams, your telephone number”), besabled matrons and their derby-hatted husbands (“Come on—we’re going to the Trans-Lux to hiss Roosevelt”), flappers with more booze than brain in their heads (“Ixnay, Edith, I just found out we’re at the wrong party”). Some of his humor had a bitter quality, exemplified by the aircraft designer viewing a flaming crash with the comment: “Well, back to the old drawing board.” But he was at his best with the double-entendre, as in his 1929 scene of a couple emerging from the woods clutching a car seat and telling a cop, “We want to report a stolen car.”

Died. Lord Howard Florey, 69, Oxford pathologist who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize with Sir Alexander Fleming and Dr. Ernst Chain for isolating and developing penicillin; of a heart attack; in Oxford. Though penicillin was discovered by Fleming in 1928, the mold was considered little more than a biological curiosity for a decade until the Australia-born Florey and a team of Oxford researchers reduced it to a pure, yellowish powder that destroyed all kinds of bacteria, saving thousands of lives during World War II and untold millions since.

Died. Scott Lucas, 76, longtime (1939-50) U.S. Senator from Illinois and Democratic majority leader under Harry Truman; of a cerebral hemorrhage; in Rocky Mount, N.C. A confirmed New Dealer, Lucas backed an internationalist foreign policy, farm and social security legislation, proved so adept in cloakroom maneuvering that he was chosen majority leader in 1949, only to lose his seat to an even more adept Republican, Everett McKinley Dirksen, in 1950.

Died. Thomas B. Byrd, 78, youngest and last survivor of Virginia’s famed Tom, Dick and Harry brothers; after a long illness; in Boyce, Va. Dick, better known as Admiral Richard E. Byrd, was the great Antarctic explorer; Harry, of course, was a pillar of the U.S. Senate from 1933 to 1965; and Tom was the one who stayed home, quietly building the family fortune in Shenandoah Valley apple orchards.

Died. Fannie Hurst, 78, one of the most popular, if not most highly acclaimed, U.S. woman authors in the past half-century; in Manhattan. To many critics she was the sob sister of American letters, and her 30 novels and countless short stories little more than glorified True Confessions pap—orphan servant girls (Lummox, 1923), the secret love of a married man (Back Street, 1930), mother love (Imitation of Life, 1933). But her novels sold many millions of copies, and magazines paid $70,000 for the serial rights. “What success I enjoy,” she once said, “comes from my inner convictions, which are little soul-tapers lighting the way.” No story could hold a candle to her own 37-year marriage to the late pianist Jacques S. Danielson. Bedeviled by her disapproving parents, the couple were wed in secret in 1915, maintained separate apartments, and for years stole off for rendezvous like illicit lovers. When the story finally got out, Fannie explained, “You see, we’re keeping the dew on the rose.”

Died. William Jansen, 80, superintendent of New York City’s schools from 1947 to 1958; of a stroke; in Bronxville, N.Y. Jansen was a builder, guiding the city’s system from a budget of $78 million in 1948 to $385 million in 1958, adding special instruction for handicapped students, and putting up 148 elementary and high schools to accommodate the influx of 100,000 new students.

Died. William G. Mennen, 83, uncle of Michigan Politician G. Mennen (“Soapy”) Williams, and longtime (1912-68) head of the Mennen Co.; of a heart attack; in Morristown, N.J. Taking over his father’s modest baby-powder firm in 1912, Mennen quickly expanded into after-shave lotions, lathers-in-a-tube, hairdressings and deodorants, plowed profits back into mass-market advertising, until his family-owned company grew to take nearly 10% of what is now a $580 million men’s cosmetic industry.