Born. To John D. ("Jay") Rockefeller IV, 32, son of John D. III and nephew of Republican Governors Nelson and Winthrop, himself recently elected Secretary of State of West Virginia on the Democratic ticket, and Sharon Percy Rockefeller, 24, daughter of Illinois' Republican Senator Charles Percy: their first child, a boy; in Charleston, W. Va.

Born. To Zoe Caldwell, 35, Australian actress who won a Tony for her first big Broadway hit, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and Robert Whitehead, 53, her producer in the play: their first child, a son; in Manhattan.

Divorced. By Lilly Pulitzer, daughter of Millionaire Horseman Ogden Phipps and a successful businesswoman in her own right as designer of subtly sophisticated casual clothes: Herbert Pulitzer Jr., grandson of the famed St. Louis publisher; on grounds of extreme cruelty; after 17 years of marriage, three children; in Miami.

Died. Howard Luck Gossage, 51, offbeat adman, who was one of the first to demonstrate that copywriting can be low-key, literate and fun; of leukemia; in San Francisco. Gossage, a onetime radio adman, and Partner Joseph Weiner opened a small West Coast firm in 1957 and proceeded to break all the rules, often pussyfooted so softly that it was hard to tell just what they were selling. For an Oregon brewer they campaigned to "Keep Times Square Green"--with Oregon trees; for Paul Masson brandy they knocked vodka ("If you can't see it, taste it, or smell it, why bother?"); for a San Francisco FM radio station they dreamed up the Bach and Beethoven sweatshirts that swept the country.

Died. Robert ("Red") Rolfe, 60, baseball great, from 1934 to 1942 third baseman for the then peerless New York Yankees; of cancer; in Laconia, N.H. Though Rolfe was primarily a glove man, he was also a threat at bat (.289 lifetime average) and noted for his game-winning hits. He helped the Yanks to six pennants and five World Series titles, then as a manager in 1950 startled the baseball world by finishing second with a mediocre Detroit Tiger club that had finished fourth the year before. In 1954, he returned to his alma mater, Dartmouth College, where he served as athletic director for 13 years.

Died. Gladys Swarthout, 64, glamorous diva of the Metropolitan Opera from 1930 to 1945, whose rich mezzo-soprano was matched by a striking, auburn-haired beauty; of a heart attack; in Florence, Italy. Born in Deepwater, Mo., Miss Swarthout started her singing career in her home-town church choir, then joined the Chicago Civic Opera in 1924 and learned more than 20 complete roles in her first year. By 1929 she was with the Met, winning acclaim for her roles in Norma, Faust, Lakme, Romeo and Juliet and particularly Carmen. Between performances, she popularized opera on radio, starred in movies, and went on innumerable concert tours. "There is a feeling, particularly around New York," she once said, "that audiences around the country want only the potboilers and insist on them. This simply isn't true."

Died. Herbert Hoover Jr., 65, son of the 31st President, former Under Secretary of State (1954-57), and successful geologist and engineer; of cancer; in Pasadena, Calif. When his father entered the White House, Hoover was 25 and had already set about carving out a career; he made his professional mark in the scientific and administrative sides of mining. Avoiding politics, he sought the ingredients of what he considered a happy life: "The outdoors, far away places, and mining engineering." It was his mining experience that prompted John Foster Dulles to send him to Iran in 1953 as a trouble-shooter in the longstanding oil dispute. His success in that job led to his appointment as Dulles' Under Secretary.

Died. Leo McCarey, 71, screenwriter and director; of emphysema; in Santa Monica, Calif. McCarey said that every film should be something of a fairy tale and he was as good as his word in Belle of the Nineties, Ruggles of Red Gap, The Bells of St. Mary's, The Awful Truth and Going My Way, the last two of which won him Oscars. "I'll let someone else photograph the ugliness of the world," he once said. "It's larceny to remind people of how lousy things are and call it entertainment."

Died. Wilhelm Backhaus, 85, German patriarch of concert pianists and the century's foremost interpreter of Beethoven; of a heart attack; in Villach, Austria. When Backhaus was eight, the noted pianist-composer Arthur Nikisch wrote to him that "whoever plays the great Bach so well when so young will surely make his way later on." The assessment was overly modest. In a career spanning three generations, Backhaus won acclaim for his masterful interpretations of virtually all the great composers. But his deepest dedication was to Beethoven, whose sonatas he played with great clarity of style and breadth of emotion. He gave his last concert in Ossiach, Austria, just a week before his death, and though the frail old man nearly fainted at one point, he continued to play. "Music," he told friends afterwards, "has always been my best therapy."

Died. Walter Gropius, 86, fountainhead of modern architecture (see ART).

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