Birthday. John Joseph Pershing, his 80th. After Franklin Roosevelt had presented him the only military award he had not previously received, the Distinguished Service Cross, the erect, silver-haired, kindly-faced old man walked into his darkened War Department office. On its walls hung oil portraits of the five U. S. Generals of the Armies: Washington, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Pershing. On its neat, massive desk stood a single memento: an old World Series baseball with fading autographs. Quizzed by a battery of surrounding newshawks, he had slow, measured words of hope for the British. Later, in a broadcast, he had a sober, grim warning for Americans: "We must face the facts of today. . . . The danger is imminent. ... To meet it we must pledge ourselves anew to fulfill our obligations to the nation, and again avow eternal devotion to the principles of liberty and justice upon which this nation rests."

Died. Georgia Coleman, 28, blonde, onetime (1932) Olympic champion diver; of a liver ailment; in Los Angeles. Her career snipped short by infantile paralysis in 1937, Diver Coleman made a heroic recovery, learned to swim all over again.

Died. Dr. Glenn Frank, 52, longtime educator and GOPundit, candidate for Wisconsin's Republican nomination for U. S. Senator; and Reporter Glenn Frank Jr., 21, his son; in a motor accident en route to a speaking engagement; near Green Bay, Wis. When in 1925 Dr. Frank resigned as editor-in-chief of Century Magazine, became the University of Wisconsin's famed "boy president," he was first welcomed, finally ousted (1937) by Progressive Governor Phillip F. La Follette. Fortnight ago Dr. Frank had rescued an injured motorist (TIME, Sept. 16).

Died. Dr. Edmund Rumpler, 68, Austrian-born designer of Germany's first automobile (1897), builder of the famed Rumpler "Taube" (Dove) scouting planes used by the Central Powers in World War I, pioneer advocate of big-scale transoceanic air service ("Give me wings large enough and sufficient motive power and I'll take the earth for an airplane ride"); of heart disease; in Mecklenburg, Germany. After the advent of Nazi power, Designer Rumpler was non-Aryan enough to be benched, big enough to remain in Germany.

Died. Sam McGee, oldtime Yukon sourdough and inspiration for Poet Robert William Service's rugged North-Country ballad, The Cremation of Sam McGee; in Beiseker, Alberta. Oldster McGee returned to the Yukon two years ago, found his old two-room shack turned into a tearoom emblazoned with a macabre invitation: "Have a cup of tea with the ghost of Sam McGee."

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