Milestones

By Harriet Barovick, Tam Gray, Daniel Levy, Lina Lofaro, David Spitz, Joel Stein and Flora Tartakovsky

DIED. ELIZABETH ("LIZ") TILBERIS, 51, editor of Harper's Bazaar; of ovarian cancer; in New York City. After rising from intern to editor in chief of British Vogue, the Manchester-born Tilberis took the helm at Hearst's Harper's Bazaar in 1992. She quickly turned the sluggish magazine into an important arbiter of style. Known for her grace and decency in a famously cutthroat business, Tilberis campaigned for cancer awareness in the pages of Bazaar and in a 1998 memoir, No Time to Die.

DIED. RAGHUBIR SINGH, 58, meticulous, internationally acclaimed photographer of India; of an apparent heart attack; in New York City. Singh, whose books captured the landscapes of every region of his native country, said that unlike colleagues who so favored black and white, "Indians have always intuitively seen and controlled colour."

DIED. MARY ROCKEFELLER, 91, first wife of former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller; in New York City. In 1962 she divorced her husband, to whom she had been married for 31 years and who caused a stir the following year when he wed staff member Margaretta ("Happy") Murphy. Rockefeller, a lifelong advocate for the education of nurses, was awarded an honorary degree for her efforts from Hunter College in 1980.

DIED. WENCESLAO MORENO, better known as Senor Wences, 103, ventriloquist who created impish dummies out of his thumb and forefinger; in New York City. As a schoolboy in Spain, Moreno began using his hand as a puppet to amuse himself while in detention for answering for absent friends during homeroom roll call. On the '50s and '60s variety shows of Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle and Sid Caesar, among others, he delighted audiences with sweetly silly exchanges. The often cranky Pedro, a disembodied head in a box, usually answered Wences' inquiry as to whether he was "all right" with a casual "S'all right."