The following is a list of notable deaths in May 1979. Entries for each day are listed alphabetically by surname. A typical entry lists information in the following sequence: Name, age, country of citizenship at birth, subsequent country of citizenship (if applicable), reason for notability, cause of death (if known), and reference.
May 1979
1 Nancy Douglas Bowditch, 88, American artist, author and Baháʼí Faith leader. Richard Docherty, 79, Australian Roman Catholic priest.FATHER RICHARD DOCHERTY MSC Raymond Fol, 51, French jazz pianist. Bronislav Gimpel, 68, Polish-American violinist. Hans Hecker, 84, German general. Ernest Hoar, 80, Australian politician. Gen'ichi Katō, 89, Japanese physiologist. Pietro Lazzari, 83, Italian-American painter and sculptor. Taisto Mäki, 68, Finnish long-distance runner. Dick Maynard, 81, Australian footballer. Sir Arthur McIlveen, 92, Australian soldier and Salvation Army leader. Morteza Motahhari, 60, Iranian Shia cleric, shot.Ayatollah on Khomeini's Council Is Slain by Islamic Guerrilla Band Paul Randles, 56, South African cricketer. Rolf Ingvar Semmingsen, 70, Norwegian civil servant. Luis Urquiri, 72, Spanish footballer.
2 Salud Algabre, 82–83, Filipino independence activist. Alf Crump, 56, Australian footballer. Boris Ephrussi, 77, Russian-French geneticist. Sanezumi Fujimoto, 68, Japanese film producer. Berkeley Gaskin, 71, Guyanese cricketer. Ezekiel C. Gathings, 75, American politician, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1939–1969).E.C. Gathings Edith Maxwell, 65, American educator and convicted murderer.Mrs. Ann Abshier Giulio Natta, 76, Italian chemical engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (1963), complications from Parkinson's disease.Giulio Natta, Nobel Laureate Henry Nehemiah Nickerson, 90, American naval officer. Lou Raymond, 84, American baseball player.
3 Charles Angoff, 77, American magazine editor.CHARLES ANGOFF, WRITER, DIES AT 77 Mary Ellinor Lucy Archer, 85, Australian botanist and librarian. Archibald C. Buchanan, 89, American jurist and politician.Archibald C. Buchanan (1890–1979) John Field, 92, American football player and coach. Marcel Florkin, 78, Belgian biochemist. Carl Gunne, 85, Swedish painter. Tom Jenkins, 81, American baseball player. Gordon Luce, 90, English-Burmese historian.OBITUARY: GORDON HANNINGTON LUCE Archduchess Margaret of Austria, 53, Austrian-Swedish royal. Erin O'Brien-Moore, 77, American actress (Peyton Place, Street Scene), cancer.Erin O'Brien‐Moore, 77, Is Dead; Actress of Stage, Screen and TV Dusty Rhodes, 87, New Zealand artist.RHODES, James Francis (Dusty) William Spengler, 90, American Olympic boxer (1920). James Noel Thomson, 90, British general. Karl Umrigar, 18, Indian jockey, fall from horse.
4 Leif Erland Andersson, 35, Swedish astronomer, lymphoma. Jack Cruise, 63, Irish comedian and actor, heart attack.Cruise, Jack (John Joseph) František Řezáč, 36, Czech Olympic cyclist (1964, 1968). John Bentley Stringer, 51, British computer scientist. Tezer Taşkıran, 71–72, Turkish politician.
5 Thomas Amarasuriya, 71, Sri Lankan politician. James A. Burden III, 81, American businessman.James A. Burden Is Dead at 81; Roller‐Bearing Concern Ex‐Head Virgil Cheeves, 78, American baseball player. Dmitri Chikhradze, 56, Soviet football player and manager. Bertie Fulton, 72, Northern Irish footballer. Bill Lucas, 43, American baseball player and manager, stroke.Bill Lucas of Braves Dead at 43; Highest Black Official in Baseball Rudolf Pfeiffer, 89, German classical scholar. Allene Ray, 78, American actress, cancer. Rodney Rought-Rought, 71, English cricketer. Josef Schimmer, 56, Austrian Olympic field hockey player (1952). Jack Taylor, 66, New Zealand rugby player.
6 Milton Ager, 85, American composer ("Happy Days Are Here Again").Milton Ager, 85, Composer, Dies Georges Daumezon, 66, French psychiatrist. Allen Elliott, 81, American baseball player. Joe Hooper, 40, American soldier, stroke. Mary Ibberson, 86, British musician and music educator. Henry Edward Kenny, 90, English soldier. Rosemary LaPlanche, 55, American actress and model, cancer.ROSEMARY LA PLANCHE Bernard Leach, 92, British studio potter.Bernard Leach, 92, Noted Potter; Briton Learned From Japanese James H. Madole, 51, American neo-Nazi activist. Hilton Poulier, 69–70, Sri Lankan cricketer. Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth, 87, German astronomer. Sir George William Rendel, 90, British diplomat.George Rendel Charlie Ripple, 58, American baseball player. Bunny Roser, 77, American baseball player. Władysław Szczepaniak, 68, Polish football player and manager.
7 Nils Andersen, 77, Norwegian Olympic runner (1924). Johnny Berger, 77, American baseball player. Raúl Blanco Cervantes, 76, Costa Rican politician, vice president (1953–1958, 1962–1966).Ayer se efectuaron funerales del Dr. Raul Blanco Cervantes Øivind Bolstad, 74, Norwegian playwright and novelist. Erik Brofoss, 70, Norwegian economist and politician. Nora FitzGibbon, 90, New Zealand nurse. André Hellegers, 52, Dutch bioethicist, heart attack.Medical Ethics Pioneer Dr. Andre Hellegers Dies Ralph Huffman, 63, American football and track and field coach. Charles Hug, 79, Swiss painter and illustrator. Marty McHale, 92, American baseball player, vaudeville performer and journalist.Martin Joseph McHale, Former Yankee Pitcher Bill Ralston, 68, Australian footballer. Heinz Reinefarth, 75, German SS commander and war criminal. Roy Schilling, 82, Australian politician.SCHILLING Aleksei Smirnov, 59, Soviet actor. Sven Utterström, 77, Swedish Olympic skier (1928, 1932). Vivian Weston, 64, Scottish rugby player.WESTON Thomas White, 86, English cricketer.
8 Julia Codesido, 95, Peruvian painter. Berton Crandall, 96, American architect and photographer. Hunt Davies, 82, Welsh rugby player. Carmen García González, 75, Mexican socialite, first lady of Mexico (1928–1930). Jacques Houssin, 76, French filmmaker. Robert Kennedy, 53, Rhodesian rugby player, injuries sustained from a gunshot wound.Rugby star dies in Rhodesia Georges Lampin, 77, Russian-born French actor and film director. Mikhail Panov, 77, Soviet general. Talcott Parsons, 76, American sociologist, stroke.Prof. Talcott Parsons; Major Social Theorist On Harvard's Faculty Victor Saville, 83, English filmmaker.Victor Saville Christine Smith, 32, Australian Olympic skier (1964), suicide by drug overdose.Rail hitch was fatal for Christine Rodica Sutzu, 66, Romanian composer and pianist. Robert Thom, 49, American screenwriter (Death Race 2000, Wild in the Streets, All the Fine Young Cannibals), heart attack.Robert Thom, Writer Of Plays, Screenplays, Novels and Poems, 49 Ernst Wallfisch, 58, German-born Romanian-American violist, heart attack.Violinist Ernst Wallfisch, professor at Smith College Notable Iranian politicians executed by firing squad on this date:More die before Iranian squads Mohammad Reza Ameli Tehrani, 51 Gholamreza Kianpour, 49–50 Javad Saeed, 55
9 Sir Charles Adermann, 82, Australian politician, MP (1943–1972).Qld peanut trade leader and politician Antonio Bacchetti, 56, Italian footballer. Salvador Balbuena, 29, Spanish golfer, heart attack.Champion golfer dies, aged 29 Sir Jack Ellerton Becker, 74, Australian businessman. Francesco Borello, 77, Italian footballer. Cyrus S. Eaton, 95, Canadian-American banker and businessman.Cyrus Eaton, Industrialist, 95, Dies Habib Elghanian, 67, Iranian businessman and philanthropist, execution by firing squad.Begin slams Iran for shooting business man Charlie Hargreaves, 82, American baseball player. Kazuto Ishida, 75, Japanese jurist, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan (1969–1973). Eddie Jefferson, 60, American jazz musician, shot.Eddie Jefferson, 60, Jazz Lyricist, Slain After Leaving Detroit Club Zoltán Kelemen, 53, Hungarian singer. Bruce Kent, 50, New Zealand Olympic cyclist (1956), electrocuted.Leonard Bruce KENT Bill Killiby, 68, Australian rugby player.KILLIBY Gabriel Ramanantsoa, 73, Malagasy politician, president and prime minister (1972–1975).Gen. Gabriel Ramanantsoa, 73, Former President of Madagascar
10 Antun Augustinčić, 79, Croatian sculptor. Walter Batty, 74, New Zealand rugby player. István Bibó, 67, Hungarian politician, lawyer and political theorist. Hans Bjerrum, 79, Danish Olympic field hockey player (1920). Louis Paul Boon, 67, Belgian novelist. Beatrice Campbell, 56, Northern Irish actress. Moose Cochran, 81, American football player. Franklin E. Ebner, 75, American politician, member of the Minnesota Senate (1933–1935).Ebner, Franklin E. Charles Frankel, 61, American philosopher, shot.Columbia Service Eulogizes Frankel as Activist Thinker James Leroy, 32, Canadian singer, suicide by drug overdose.Autopsy results expected today Carl Martin, 73, American blues musician. J. B. Morton, 85, English writer.By the way Ita Rina, 71, Slovenian actress and beauty queen, asthma attack.ACTRIZ FALLECE Robert Steen, 45, Canadian politician, liver cancer.Winnipeg mayor dies of cancer Alan Story, 65, Australian footballer. Hōne Taiapa, 66, New Zealand woodcarver.
11 Joan Chandler, 55, American actress (Rope, Humoresque, My Three Angels), cancer.Joan Chandler Dead: Played on Broadway In My Three Angels’ Waldron Faulkner, 81, American architect.FAULKNER, WALDRON Lester Flatt, 64, American singer and bluegrass musician ("The Ballad of Jed Clampett"), heart failure.Lester Flatt, Singer and Guitarist In Duo With Earl Scruggs, Dies Albrecht Gaiswinkler, 73, Austrian politician. Barbara Hutton, 66, American socialite and philanthropist, heart attack.Heiress Barbara Hutton Dies at 66 Bernard Kettlewell, 72, British geneticist and entomologist, accidental drug overdose. George Kringelbach, 51, Danish journalist. Rebecca Kunash, 6, American murder victim, homicide by drowning.Six-year-old taken from her bed discovered murdered in canal Mullie Lenoir, 82, American football player and coach. Dorothy Lyndall, 88, American dancer and dance educator.Dorothy Lyndall, Apple Valley Chris Rosenberg, 28, American gangster, shot.Woodmere Man Killed By Machine Gun Blast John Swope, 70, American photographer.John Swope, Noted Photographer Odile Tailleu, 81, Belgian racing cyclist. Felix von Eckardt, 75, German journalist and propagandist, heart attack.Former aide to Adenauer dies at 75
12 Alf Benison, 60, Australian footballer. Pierre Brunet, 71, French Olympic rower (1932). Lesley Clifford, 42, English cricketer. Victoria Joyce Ely, 89, American nurse. Rosario María Gutiérrez Eskildsen, 80, Mexican linguist and lexicographer. Frank Johnson, 62, Australian footballer. Kalpana, 35, Indian actress, suicide by drug overdose. Clyde Kluttz, 61, American baseball player, scout and executive, heart and kidney disease.Kluttz Dies Carlo A. Lanzillotti, 68, American politician, member of the New York State Senate (1953–1954).Carlo A. LANZILLOTTI Mykola Nedilko, 76, Soviet Ukrainian-American painter. Ileana Sărăroiu, 42, Romanian singer, brain aneurysm. Olga Schwind, 92, German-Swiss musician. Leonardantonio Sforza, 80, Italian politician. G. King Thompson, 91, American jurist.
13 Predrag Đajić, 57, Yugoslav footballer, heart attack. Iris Hoey, 93, English actress. Vera Nilsson, 90, Swedish painter and peace activist.Vera Amalia Märta Nilsson J. R. W. Purves, 76, Australian lawyer and philatelist. Antoinette Quinche, 83, Swiss politician and feminist activist. Flora Shaw Stewart, 92, Scottish-born Papua New Guinean businesswoman.STEWART, Flora Shaw
14 Sir Peter Kerley, 78, Irish radiologist and physician. Josef Kitzmüller, 66, Austrian footballer. Viktor Novikov, 74, Soviet Greek Orthodox prelate. Heinz Pollay, 71, German Olympic equestrian (1936, 1952). Jean Rhys, 88, Dominican-English novelist (Wide Sargasso Sea).Jean Rhys, 84, Novelist Known for 'sargasso Sea’ Thomas Scherman, 62, American conductor.SCHERMAN‐Thomas K Kinnosuke Takamatsu, 81, Japanese actor.
15 Jerry Akers, 91, American baseball player. Víctor Hugo Arias, 66, Chilean politician.