Obituaries of note

ROBERT MERLE, 95, who won France's highest literary honor and wrote the novel that inspired Mike Nichols' movie The Day of the Dolphin, died Saturday at his home in the Yvelines region outside Paris, said his publisher, Editions de Fallois. The novel inspired Nichols' 1973 film starring George C. Scott as a scientist who trains talking dolphins. His first novel, Weekend in Zuydcoote, was set during the Allied forces' evacuation from Dunkirk during World War II. It won the 1949 Goncourt, the country's most prestigious literary award.

ARTHUR RAY "HAWK" HAWKINS, 81, one of the Navy's top flying aces, died March 21 in Pensacola. The retired captain was the Navy's 10th-ranking ace during World War II, with 14 confirmed and three probable aerial victories, all while flying F6F Hellcats. He flew from the aircraft carriers USS Cabot and USS Belleau Wood and assisted in the sinking of a battleship.

ADAN SANCHEZ, 19, son of singer Marcelino "Chalino" Sanchez and a rising singer in his own right, died Saturday in a car wreck in northwestern Mexico, federal police reported. He had recorded nine commercial music CDs that included tributes to his father, who transformed traditional Mexican ballads played to polka or waltz rhythms into tough tales about criminals and drug traffickers. The elder Sanchez was shot to death in 1992.

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