Divorced. Adlai Stevenson, 49, Illinois' Democratic governor; by Ellen Borden Stevenson, 40, socialite heiress (oil) of a Republican family; after 21 years of marriage, three sons; in a secret hearing in Las Vegas, Nev.

Died. Edward Towner Leech, 57, who as editor of the Pittsburgh Press (daily circ. 265,073) made it Scripps-Howard's richest property; after an operation; in Pittsburgh.

Died. Huddle Ledbetter ("Lead Belly"), sixtyish, badman minstrel who brought unwritten Negro folk ballads and work songs to cafe society and the concert halls of Manhattan and Paris; of a bone infection; in Manhattan. Hard-drinking, hell-raising Lead Belly, three times convicted for knife assaults and manslaughter, specialized in "sinful" folk songs of hard work and wild love rather than "spirituals," was finally tamed by success and his sponsor, the late ballad-collecting John Lomax.

Died. George Rivet Van Namee, 71, onetime secretary and "old potato" to Tammany's Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York; of pneumonia; in Manhattan. Van Namee was a member of Smith's "kitchen cabinet" and manager of his pre-convention presidential campaign in 1928; he also managed (in the same year) Franklin D. Roosevelt's campaign for governor of New York.

Died. Rex Beach, 72, prolific writer of action romances (The Spoilers) for a large and devoted audience; by his own hand (he was stricken two years ago with cancer of the throat); in Sebring, Fla. As husky as one of his own derring-do heroes, Michigan-born Author Beach lived the outdoor life and recorded fresh descriptions of it, traveled widely (from Wall Street to West Texas to the Klondike), but kept faith with his fans by sticking close to his good v. bad plot formula.

Died. Clifford Kennedy ("Cliff") Berryman, 80, dean of U.S. newspaper cartoonists and Pulitzer Prizewinner (1943), whose elaborately crosshatched, fussily old-fashioned work appeared in Washington's grey old Star (since 1907) and Post (1891-1907), was fondly collected by Presidents and politicians; of a heart ailment; in Washington. Berryman, whose work is one of the favorite decorations on official Washington walls, learned his craft by copying the old Puck and Judge cartoons. In 1944 Librarian Archibald Mac-Leish asked for 2,000 original cartoons for the Library of Congress.

Died. Edmund Wade Fairchild, 83, founder and president of Women's Wear Daily and five other Fairchild Publications, garment-trade magazines whose combined 120,000 circulation gives them top rank in the field; in Glen Ridge, N.J.

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