Obituaries of note

THE REV. JOHN M. BURGESS, 94, who led the Episcopalian diocese in Massachusetts and was the first black man to head a U.S. diocese, died Sunday. Mr. Burgess became the first black archdeacon in New England when he was appointed to serve in Boston in 1956. In 1969, he was chosen the 12th bishop of Massachusetts, then the largest Episcopalian diocese in the nation. He retired in 1976.

HERBERT E. ABRAMS, 82, the painter of presidents and dignitaries whose work included White House portraits of former Presidents Bush and Carter, died Friday of prostate cancer in Hartford, Conn. In a career that spanned more than four decades, the artist completed more than 400 portraits that also included Gen. William Westmoreland and astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. Mr. Abrams studied at the Norwich Art School and became a pilot in World War II. While he was serving as a camouflage technician, he redesigned the Army Air Forces aircraft insignia.

CARDINAL CORRADO URSI, 95, who served as archbishop of Naples for 21 years until his retirement in 1987, died Friday.

WILLIAM SCHERLE, 80, who represented southwest Iowa for four terms in Congress, died on Wednesday in Council Bluffs.

MARION HARGROVE, 83, whose light-hearted account of Army basic training, See Here, Private Hargrove, became a No. 1 bestseller in 1942 and transformed him into a World War II celebrity, died Aug. 23 in Long Beach, Calif. An Army guide of sorts at a time when millions of young men were going off to war, his book became a publishing phenomenon. Henry Holt & Co. issued 12 hardcover printings in 1942, selling 410,000 copies. Pocket Books sold 2.2-million copies in a 25-cent paperback edition.

FRANK MacDONALD, 107, Australia's oldest World War I veteran and its last surviving serviceman to have been cited for bravery in that war, died on Aug. 23. MacDonald received the Military Medal for Gallantry at the battle of Ypres, Belgium, in October 1917, for repairing telegraph lines between his battalion headquarters and the trenches while under fire.

JINX FALKENBURG, 84, a pioneer of radio and TV talk shows and one of America's highest paid cover-girl models during World War II, died Wednesday in Manhasset, N.Y. At one point in the 1950s, she and her husband, publicist Tex McCrary, had two radio programs, a five-day-a-week television show and a syndicated column in the New York Herald Tribune. They were among the first to refine the format that came to be called the talk show.

FLOYD TILLMAN, 88, a Country Music Hall of Fame musician, died Aug. 22 in Bacliff, Texas. His deep, plaintive drawl, honky-tonk guitar style and classic compositions about loss and adultery kept him a much-admired musical force for decades. He broke new ground in post-World War II music, notably with Slippin' Around. Considered daring for its blithe approach to adultery, the song became a million-selling duet in 1949 for Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely and a top country recording for Ernest Tubb.

DR. JOHN SHEARMAN, 72, an expert on Italian Renaissance art, died of a heart attack Aug. 11. He oversaw the restoration of the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in Rome and determined why Michelangelo was hired to paint the ceiling. An expert on the technical aspects of painting, he was often called upon to identify and conserve works of art.

PHIL GOODMAN, 70, who was instrumental in starting the Georgia Public Radio network, died Aug. 23 in Marietta, Ga., of cancer.

GENEROSA AMMON PELOSI, 46, the widow of R. Theodore Ammon, a millionaire financier who was killed at his Long Island home in 2001, died Aug. 22 in New York City of breast cancer. Three months after Ammon was found bludgeoned to death, his widow and Daniel Pelosi married. She and Mr. Pelosi denied any involvement in the killing.

FREDERICK L. DEMING, 90, an undersecretary of the treasury in the Johnson administration and a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, died Aug. 21 in Fort Myers.

IRVING "BUD" SHWAYDER, 81, the retired president of Samsonite Corp. and the last member of his family to run the luggage company founded in 1910, died Aug. 23 in Denver.

- Area obituaries and the Suncoast Deaths list appear in local sections.

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