Milestones

By Tam Martinides Gray, Daniel S. Levy, Michele Lynn Orecklin and Alain L. Sanders

DIED. MARGARET MARY RAY, 46, deranged fan who became a punch line after repeatedly breaking into David Letterman's home; of suicide; in Colorado. Ray had been jailed and institutionalized over the years for stalking Letterman.

DIED. MARK BELANGER, 54, premier fielding shortstop of the 1970s who was a nimble barricade that no ball could pass; of lung cancer; in New York City. Nicknamed Blade, Belanger won eight Gold Gloves in 16 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles.

DIED. JOSEPH BAUM, 78, restaurateur who drew high rollers to his high-concept eateries; in New York City. Baum's penchant for aerial views and all things flambe culminated in the Manhattan landmarks Windows on the World and the Rainbow Room.

DIED. JEROME WEIDMAN, 85, novelist and playwright who depicted Big Apple archetypes from fast-talking garmentos to frenetic politicians; in New York City. His works include the musical Fiorello!, about Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize.

DIED. ROGER VIVIER, 90, innovative shoe designer for the unsurpassingly well heeled; in Toulouse, France. Vivier, creator of the stiletto heel, won devotees including Marlene Dietrich and Queen Elizabeth II, for whom he designed gold coronation sandals.

DIED. CLARK CLIFFORD, 91, consummate Washington insider; in Bethesda, Md. Tall, elegant and impeccably attired, Clifford advised four Democratic Presidents, using a knack for crystallizing issues to advocate causes from civil rights to environmental protection. An architect of Harry S Truman's 1948 election victory, he later counseled winding down the Vietnam War as Lyndon Johnson's Defense Secretary. Says TIME's Hugh Sidey: "He had a genius for reducing things to their simplest terms but fell to a tragic and false sense of invulnerability." Clifford's chairmanship of a bank embroiled in international scandal led to 1992 criminal charges that were dropped because of his age and frailty.