* Mae Lenore Markham; Philanthropist

Mae Lenore Markham, a philanthropist whose late husband was publisher of the Valley News, predecessor of the Daily News of Los Angeles, has died at an Encino hospital. She was 95.

A longtime resident of Encino, Mrs. Markham died Thursday of a heart attack, according to her granddaughter.

Born in Rossville, Kan., she graduated from Emporia Teacher’s College. In 1932, she saw an advertisement offering for sale a controlling interest in a Van Nuys paper and encouraged her husband, Maurice W. Markham, publisher of the Baldwin (Kan.) Ledger, and father-in-law, William Colfax Markham, to consider buying it and moving. Her husband served as Valley News publisher from 1961 until he died in 1975.

Mrs. Markham was a leader of many San Fernando Valley civic groups, including the Old Treasures Club of Southern California, the Valley Committee for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the AN chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, and was affiliated with the Van Nuys Woman’s Club. Mrs. Markham was a founding member of the Los Angeles Music Center and later established a scholarship at the USC School of Journalism.

She is survived by her granddaughter, Cinda Keating Lucus of Del Mar.

A funeral was held Monday with burial at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills. Praiswater Funeral Home in Van Nuys handled the arrangements. Donations can be made in Mrs. Markham’s name to the American Heart Assn.