Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, ELIZABETH L. BLAND, Arlyn Tobias Gajilan, Jeninne Lee-St. John, Lina Lofaro, Logan Orlando

DIED. VIVIAN MALONE JONES, 63, whose battle to enroll at the University of Alabama resulted, on June 11, 1963, in a now infamous "stand in the school-house door" by then Governor George Wallace; after a stroke; in Atlanta. Before stepping aside to allow Jones and fellow black student James Hood entry, Wallace railed against the federally ordered integration. Yet despite the pervasive racism that led Hood to transfer, Jones thrived, becoming the school's first African-American graduate in 1965. Jones, who got an apology from Wallace in 1986, later said she "had a responsibility ... to myself, my family and my people."

DIED. JACK WHITE, 63, reporter for the Providence Journal whose 1973 story on Richard Nixon's underpayment of his income taxes won the Pulitzer Prize and prompted Nixon, who ultimately paid more than $400,000 in back taxes, to utter the famous line "I am not a crook"; of an apparent heart attack; on Cape Cod, Mass.

DIED. C. DELORES TUCKER, 78, longtime social activist and founder of the National Congress of Black Women who made headlines in the 1990s with her relentless crusade against violent, misogynistic lyrics in gangsta rap; in Philadelphia. Among her targets: the N.A.A.C.P. (for nominating Tupac Shakur for an Image Award), record stores and major distributors--like TIME'S parent company, Time Warner--in which she bought stock to attend shareholder meetings. At these and other venues Tucker, who became a source of derision in a number of rap songs, delivered famously elegant tirades against recordings she called "pornographic filth."

DIED. MILTON OBOTE, 80, early architect of Uganda's independence from Britain in 1962 and the country's first postcolonial Prime Minister; in Johannesburg, South Africa. The savvy but ultimately despotic politician, who tried unsuccessfully to unite Uganda's factionalized parties, was overthrown in 1971 by his military aide, Idi Amin. After Amin's brutal reign, Obote regained power in 1980, but an allegedly rigged election and his repressive rule led to his ouster and exile to Zambia in 1985.

DIED. LOUIS NYE, 92, hilarious ensemble player on Steve Allen's landmark 1950s variety show, known to today's viewers as manager Jeff Greene's cranky father on the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm; in Los Angeles. Gifted at creating accents and facial expressions for a series of happily clueless characters, he was most famous for playing Gordon Hathaway, the effete country-club snob whose line "Hi, ho, Steverino!" became a national catchphrase.

DIED. LADY ABBESS BENEDICT DUSS, 94, co-founder, in the late 1940s, of the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn., the first monastery for cloistered Benedictine nuns in the U.S.; in Bethlehem, Conn. The abbess, who helped inspire the popular 1949 film Come to the Stable, starring Celeste Holm and Loretta Young, stepped down in 1998 amid an investigation by the Vatican into the community's alleged use of cultlike discipline.

DIED. EDMUND BACON, 95, irascible urban planner (and father of actor Kevin Bacon) whose revitalization of Philadelphia landed him in 1964 on the cover of TIME, which lauded his work as the "most skillfully coordinated of all big-city programs in the U.S."; in Philadelphia. Among his contributions: the conception of Penn Center, a collection of high-rises, shops and restaurants credited with sparking the city's rebirth. Bacon's 1967 book, Design of Cities, remains a staple of many architecture classes.