Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Roy B. White and Rebecca Winters

BORN. To MARIANE PEARL, 34, French-born widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl; a boy, ADAM D. PEARL; in Paris. Pearl's family, in a written statement, said, "The name Adam symbolizes the birth of humankind and the connectedness of civilizations... We are hopeful Adam's generation will see the emergence of an era in which tolerance and understanding reign."

DIED. FAYE DANCER, 77, former star of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League and the inspiration for Madonna's character in the film A League of Their Own; after breast cancer surgery; in Los Angeles.

DIED. NANCY WHITE, 85, elegant, eminently proper editor of Harper's Bazaar during the 1960s, known throughout three marriages as Miss White; in New York City. Not nearly as ubiquitous as her primary rival, Vogue's Diana Vreeland, White kept apace with the tumultuous decade, infusing the magazine with photographs by Avedon and Hiro and featuring models in bikinis, luminous body stockings and space suits.

DIED. GEORGE COOPER, 85, who made history as one of the Navy's Golden Thirteen, the first group of African Americans to become active-duty line officers in the U.S. Navy; in Centerville, Ohio. Despite the Navy's usual 25% attrition rate, Cooper and his fellow officers all passed training. "We decided early...we were going to either sink or swim together," he said.

DIED. GENICHI KAWAKAMI, 90, entrepreneur dubbed "the emperor," who oversaw the expansion of a tiny Japanese corporation he inherited from his father into Yamaha, world-renowned maker of motorcycles and musical instruments; in Hamamatsu, Japan.

DIED. MILDRED BENSON, 96, original author of the bestselling Nancy Drew mystery novels, written under the pen name Carolyn Keene; in Toledo, Ohio. Benson set the series' tone, offering girls a heroine sleuth with brains, courage and a cute boyfriend. Her editor later claimed authorship of the books--saying she had outlined the plots and heavily edited the manuscripts--thus creating another mystery. But Benson was not irked. "I'm so sick of Nancy Drew," she once said, "I could vomit."