Born. To Robert J. Allen, 41, $59-a-week Boston policeman, and Helen Mc-Leod Allen, 31, former secretary: their third, fourth, fifth and sixth children-quadruplets; in Boston. Names: Karen Elizabeth (1 lb. 4 oz.; 7:11 a.m.); Robert Jr. (3 lbs. 3 oz.; 7:15 a.m.); Timothy (2 lbs. 3 oz.; 7:20 a.m.), and Kathleen (2 lbs. 8 oz.; 7:25 a.m.). Two days later, Karen died of prematurity. Three days later, Timothy, who was given only a 50-50 chance to live, was being fed glucose intravenously.

Married. Nancy Walker, 28, rowdy comedienne of stage (Look, Ma, I'm Dancin!) and screen (Best Foot Forward); and David Craig, 27, Tin-Pan Alley lyricist; she for the second time; in Hoboken, N.J.

Died. William James Conners Jr., 55, publisher of the Buffalo Courier-Express (circ. 149,465), which he took over from his father in 1919; of a heart attack; in Buffalo.

Died. Walter Geist, 56, president since 1942 of Milwaukee's Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. (farm tractors and harvesters, generators, road graders, sawmill and flour-mill machinery); of a heart attack; in Milwaukee. Son of Norwegian immigrants, Geist quit, school at 15 to go to work as an Allis-Chalmers errand boy. In 1949 he ran a $351 million business.

Died. Alfred Smart, 56, Nebraska born president and treasurer of Esquire, Inc., publishers of Esquire and Coronet, actually second in command to his brother, Founder David A. Smart; in Chicago.

Died. James Bridie (real name: Osborne Henry Mavor), 63, Scottish physician-playwright (Daphne Laureola), who began in middle age writing whimsical plays as a sideline, gave up his medical practice to work full time at it, became one of Britain's leading playwrights (32 plays, ten hits); of a vascular ailment; in Edinburgh.

Died. Ralph E. Diffendorfer, 71, leader in foreign missions for 25 years (1924-49) as an executive of Methodism's energetic Board of Missions; of a heart attack; in Manhattan.

Died. E. H. Ferdinand Porsche, 75, German car designer of both flashy racers for collectors and Hitler's cheap, beetle-shaped Volkswagen; of a stroke; in Stuttgart.

Died. Sir Charles Blake Cochran, 78, England's leading showman ("The British Barnum"); of injuries suffered in scalding bath water, which he was too crippled by arthritis to turn off; in London. Shrewd "C.B." started out selling a quack ointment in the U.S., wound up selling Britain's top stars (Noel Coward, Beatrice Lillie, Gertrude Lawrence) to transatlantic theatergoers. Specializing in both beauty ("Mr. Cochran's Young Ladies") and beasts (he introduced rodeo to a somewhat startled England), he promoted anything he considered a good show ("I would rather see a good juggler than a bad Hamlet").

Died. Dikran ("Papa") Kelekian, 83, Turkish-born dealer in "Persian pots and Parisian paintings," early U.S. champion of Picasso and Matisse; in a jump from his 23rd floor hotel suite; in Manhattan. His "good customers" included John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Died. Joseph Palmer Knapp, 86, chief organizer, chief stockholder, and retired chief executive of Crowell-Collier Publishing Co. (Collier's; the American Magazine; Woman's Home Companion) and of This Week (circulation of the four: 19,712,000), a pioneer in the evolution of color printing, son of Joseph Fairchild Knapp, founder of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.; in Manhattan.

Died. Edward Agar Horatio Nelson, fifth Earl Nelson, 90, great-great nephew of Britain's Admiral Nelson (1758-1805) and last to get the "perpetual" -L-5,000-a-year pension to Nelson's heirs; in London. The Socialist government unilaterally canceled Britannia's promise to the man who made her Mistress of the Seas.

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