Died. George Frazier, 63, acerbic, eccentric newspaper columnist; of lung cancer; in Cambridge, Mass. A self-styled Brahmin, Frazier was the Harvard-honed son of a fire inspector. After making his name as a jazz critic, ubiquitous freelance and LIFE writer, the widely read gadfly went on to ramble polysyllabically about style, taste and whatever else he fancied in his Boston Herald and, later, Boston Globe columns. Proud of his image as a professional snob--he proclaimed the common man an "ill-clad, ill-spoken hooligan"--Frazier brought his own hot dogs to baseball games and named among his betes noires white socks ("Shoot 'em on sight. As bad as turtlenecks").

Died. Miguel Angel Asturias, 74, Guatemalan novelist, diplomat and winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize for literature; of a respiratory ailment and intestinal tumor; in Madrid. A hulking man with strikingly saurian eyes, Asturias was a dedicated leftist. He spent much of his life abroad, either as a student, in diplomatic service or, when the Guatemalan government had taken one of its periodic swings to the extreme right, as an exile. His first major novel, The President, a searing indictment of a Guatemalan dictator, was followed by a trilogy blasting the imperialism of the United Fruit Co. in Latin America. In 1966 he received the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union.

Died. Prince Henry William Frederick Albert, 74, Duke of Gloucester, third son of King George V of England; after a long illness; in Northamptonshire, England. Educated at Sandhurst, the Duke interrupted his military career to assume princely duties after his eldest brother Edward, Duke of Windsor, gave up his throne in 1936 to marry American Divorcee Wallis Simpson. For his brother King George VI, Gloucester undertook a spate of ceremonial chores and overseas good-will missions; he also indulged his passion for riding, fox hunting and polo. After serving as a high-ranking liaison officer in World War II, he spent a few years as an unpopular Governor General of Australia. Following the coronation of his niece Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, he continued to make the rounds as official emissary of the House of Windsor.

Died. Sholom Secunda, 79, versatile composer of 1,000 popular songs; of cancer; in Manhattan. Already famed as a cantor, Secunda at the age of eight emigrated to the U.S. from Russia, later graduated from Juilliard. In 1932 he whipped up Bel Mir Bistu Schein while sitting on a New York boardwalk, but together with Lyricist Jacob Jacobs sold the copyright five years later for $30. Soon picked up by a then obscure trio called the Andrews Sisters, the tune went on to gross $3 million by 1961, when the rights reverted to the authors. In the meantime Secunda had won distinction as an orchestra leader and a composer of Jewish liturgical melodies and dozens of Yiddish musicals.

Died. Katharine Cornell, 81, empress of the American theater; of pneumonia; in Vineyard Haven, Mass. "Kit" Cornell grew up in Buffalo, where her father gave up a medical practice to manage a playhouse. She joined the Washington Square Players in New York in 1917, did stock parts in Buffalo and Detroit, and caught the notice of Guthrie McClintic, a young director. They married in 1921, the year Cornell first played on Broadway, starting one of the theater's most auspicious connubial collaborations. During the 40 years of their marriage, McClintic directed Cornell in almost all of her roles.

Dark, slinky, with a faintly Oriental mien and a marvelously adaptable mouth, Cornell was dubbed the American Duse. After indelibly establishing her star status as the sultry Iris March in Michael Arlen's The Green Hat, she later chose rich dramatic roles in the "Katharine Cornell Presents" company she founded with McClintic in 1931. Its first production, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, featured Cornell as the consumptive Elizabeth Barrett. In 1933 Cornell took the company on a landmark 21,000-mile road trip through the U.S., bringing The Barretts, Shaw's Candida and Romeo and Juliet to such places as Amarillo, Texas, and Portland, Me. Cornell's fine eye for casting led her to offer early breaks to such talents as Gregory Peck and Orson Welles. She continued her throaty-voiced performances until 1961, when McClintic died and she retired. "I couldn't do anything after that," she said. "He always gave me the security I needed."

Died. Eurico Caspar Dutra, 89, conservative, taciturn President of Brazil from 1946 to 1951; of a heart attack; in Rio de Janeiro. Pre-eminently a soldier, Dutra rose through military ranks to become war minister to Strongman Getulio Vargas in 1936, belatedly latched onto the Allied wartime cause after years of vocal admiration for the Nazi forces, and was swept into the presidency following Vargas' ouster in 1945. Among the highlights of his honest, non-dictatorial but uninspired administration were the outlawing of the Communist Party and of casino gambling, at the time Brazil's most lucrative industry. Dutra, who somewhat resembled a baby owl, lived an ascetic life in the presidential palace, retiring nightly at 8 and holding his first audiences at 5 a.m.

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