Milestones: Dec. 31, 1965

Married. Arlene Dahl, 38, still-flaming Hollywood redhead (Kisses for My President), now author of a beauty column; and Alexis Lichine, 52, U.S. wine importer; he for the second time, she for the fourth; in St. James, Barbados.

Divorced. By Dame Peggy Ashcroft, 58, well-versed Shakespearean actress and pillar of Britain’s Old Vic: Jeremy Hutchinson, 50, London barrister whose roster of clients has included Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Fanny Hill and Party-girl Christine Keeler; on uncontested grounds of adultery; after 25 years of marriage, two children; in London.

Died. Richard Dimbleby, 52, BBC’s mellifluous Voice of Britain for the past 30 years, who covered every major event from the 1952 coronation of Queen Elizabeth to Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral this year; of cancer; in London. He brought such knowledge and unabashed love of the Establishment to his broadcasts that Britons nicknamed him Bishop Dimbleby, Dick Dimbleboom and the Royal Plum Pudding—though he could, in a moment of off-mike irreverence, crack that “We marry ’em, we crown ’em and we bury ’em.”

Died. General Walter Campbell Sweeney Jr., 56, recently retired boss of the Tactical Air Command (1961-65), a much-decorated bomber pilot (Midway, Tokyo) who took over TAC at the height of the Berlin Wall crisis, turned it from a relatively small outfit into a major arm of U.S. airpower with 1,400 jet fighters, its own tankers and transports, and the ability to perform any tactical mission from the 1964 Congo missionary rescue to ground support in Viet Nam; of cancer; at Homestead Air Force Base, Fla.

Died. Al Ritz, 64, eldest of the Ritz Brothers who, with Second Brother Jimmy, played straight man to Rubber-faced Harry in 18 movies between 1936 and 1946 (Never a Dull Moment), continued to enliven nightclubs with a blend of lunatic dance and non sequitur patter; of a heart attack; in New Orleans.

Died. General Thomas Dresser White, 64, Air Force Chief of Staff, from 1957 to 1961; of leukemia; in Washington. An unrelenting advocate of ever stronger air power who fought vainly for the Air Force’s experimental B70 supersonic bomber, General White felt that rigid reliance on missiles was “tantamount to the Maginot Line” and that the theory of mutual deterrence gave a false sense of invulnerability. “The only safe strategy,” he said, was “imbalance—with a vast preponderance on our side.”

Died. George H. Dixon, 65, author of the syndicated “Washington Scene,” a grab bag column of nonpolitical cocktail-party and press-conference observations appearing daily since 1944; following a heart attack; in Washington. Sometimes sharp, more often corny, Dixon took aim at “the guy in the silk hat,” up to and including the President of the U.S., which led him to describe 1965 as “the year of incision” and L.B.J. as “the abdominal showman.”

Died. William J. Allen, 76, New Jersey truck driver whose discovery in May 1932 of the decomposed body of 20-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. in a shallow grave near Hopewell, N.J., ended a 72-day search for the kidnaped child and catapulted the Negro worker into brief but unfortunate fame, landing him as a freak in a Coney Island exhibit until public pressure forced New Jersey Governor A. Harry Moore to find him state employment and give him a $5,000 reward; of heart disease; in Trenton, N.J.

Died. Andrew Wells Robertson, 85, chairman and chief executive of Westinghouse Electric Corp. from 1929 to 1945, a Pittsburgh lawyer who guided the firm through the Depression into the spectacular growth years of World War II, tripling its sales with new consumer appliances (dishwashers, electric ranges), the first industrial atom smasher (the 1937 Van de Graaff generator) and a vast array of defense equipment; of a stroke; in Pittsburgh.