SEPARATED. W. Michael Blumenthal, 53, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; and Eileen Policy Blumenthal; after 28 years of marriage, three children. The couple separated once before, in 1977, but were reconciled the following year. No legal action is planned.

DIVORCED. Liza Minnelli, 33, sparkle-eyed film actress and singer (Cabaret; New York, New York); and Jack Haley Jr., 45, movie producer (That's Entertainment.') and television executive; after 4 years of marriage; in Los Angeles.

DIED. Nino Rota, 67, Italian composer best known for some 100 movie scores, including the Oscar-winning music for Godfather II and nearly all of Director Federico Fellini's films; of a blood clot; in Rome. A native of Milan, Rota composed his first opera at 14 and in 1931 went to the U.S. to study at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute. Returning to Italy two years later, he continued writing operas (The Italian Straw Hat), symphonies and chamber works during his next 45 years, but achieved his greatest success scoring such films as Fellini's La Strada (1954), La Dolce Vita (1960), 8 1/2(1963) and Amarcord(1915), as well as Francis Ford Coppola's two Godfather films. Prolific and inventive, Rota often wrote his scores before the director began shooting. Said he: "Music does not need to be hard to understand to be good. It should relax and entertain the audience -not torture them."

DIED. Charles Sawyer, 92, former Secretary of Commerce (1948-53); of a stroke; in Palm Beach, Fla. A Cincinnati lawyer and entrepreneur, Sawyer ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio in 1938 and six years later was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Belgium by President Roosevelt. Here signed his diplomatic assignment the following year and was named to the Cabinet by his good friend Harry Truman in 1948. A conservative Democrat who served as the Administration's envoy to the business community, Sawyer denounced stringent antitrust legislation and advocated lower corporate taxes and a balanced budget. He found himself severely tested in 1952, when Truman seized the steel industry in order to avert a strike. The President ordered Sawyer to administer the mills and grant workers and owners wage and price increases. Unhappy with the seizure, Sawyer acted only when assured of the order in writing. Resigning his post after Eisenhower's election, he returned to Ohio and his law practice, continuing to hold firm his belief in the nation's free enterprise system. "The United States, like Atlas, is holding up the world," he once said. "But who holds up Atlas? American business."

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