Obituaries - April 2, 1999

Lucien Aigner; Photojournalist

Lucien Aigner, 97, photojournalist who captured famous images of Albert Einstein, Benito Mussolini and other world leaders. Born in Hungary and the brother of designer Etienne Aigner, the photographer was one of the first to exploit the ability of the small, inconspicuous 35-millimeter camera. He became well known for his photos of world leaders in pre-World War II Europe, including an image of Italian dictator Mussolini tweaking his nose. The unflattering photo was taken with Aigner’s tiny Leica camera during a 1935 conference in which Britain and France tried to dissuade Mussolini from allying with Adolf Hitler. After the war began, the photo was used on the cover of Newsweek with the caption “Il Duce Defies Democracy.” Aigner photographed the 1932 Geneva Conference on Disarmament and the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, recording images of Hitler, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. After fleeing Europe for the United States in 1938, Aigner was unable to photograph the developing war but turned his attention to life in America. He captured a rumpled Einstein standing before a Princeton classroom blackboard in 1941--a photo the scientist considered the best ever taken of him. Trained at universities in Prague, Budapest and New York City, Aigner published his photos in European magazines and Life, Look, Coronet and the New York Times. He also had several one-man shows and created two films, “Paintings for Halloween” and “Hong Kong Breakthrough.” On Monday in Waltham, Mass.

*

Lawrence D. Duke Sr.; Lawyer Fought Klan

Lawrence D. Duke Sr., 86, who prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members in Georgia. Duke was a civil rights lawyer and prosecutor who put his life in danger by defending blacks and prosecuting Klan members in the 1930s and 1940s. He gained national prominence in 1941 when Life magazine ran a photo of him gesturing at Georgia Gov. Eugene Talmadge with two whips that had been used to beat a black man to death. Then an assistant state attorney general, Duke had confronted Talmadge at a hearing after the governor threatened to grant the two Klansmen clemency. Talmadge relented and did not set the men free until late in their prison terms. In 1946 Duke successfully fought to have the Georgia Klan’s state charter of incorporation revoked. Although the charter was later reinstated, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce named Duke one of its 10 outstanding young men of the year in 1947, along with then-Rep. John F. Kennedy. Duke often stayed at county jails or hospitals for security when he tried civil rights cases in south Georgia, his daughter, Dorrie Fletcher, told a Fulton County newspaper. “He stood for the pure rights of people,” she said. On March 24 of pneumonia in Fayette, Ga.

*

Darlene Geis; Author of Children’s Books

Darlene Geis, 81, author of such children’s books as “Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals.” Geis’ dinosaur story earned a Boys Club of America Award. Among her other books were “The Little Train That Won a Medal,” “Design for Ann” and “The Mystery of the Thirteenth Floor.” Geis worked for book publisher Harry N. Abrams and wrote and edited books for Disney Enterprises. For Disney, she worked on “The Fantasia Book” and “Treasury of Children’s Classics.” On March 25 in New York City in a house fire.

*

Angelo La Pietra; Chicago Mob Figure

Angelo La Pietra, 80, former high-ranking Chicago mobster convicted in 1986 casino skimming conspiracy case. La Pietra was known to police as a mob enforcer who rose through the ranks of Chicago organized crime to become one of its three top leaders. In 1986 he was among several mobsters convicted of conspiring to skim $2 million in untaxed gambling profits from the Stardust and Fremont casinos in Las Vegas. At the time the investigation was considered one of the most exhaustive conducted by federal authorities. La Pietra, whose police record dated to 1938, was described by an undercover FBI informant as “a feared person, absolutely, totally feared.” He served 10 years of a 16-year sentence, making headlines during his incarceration when associates smuggled his favorite foods into the federal prison in Connecticut. After his 1997 release, he spent much of his time helping to rebuild his old neighborhood around 26th and Princeton on the edge of Chicago’s Chinatown. On March 28 in Chicago.

*

Mary Beth Moorad; Cancer Activist

Mary Beth Moorad, 53, cancer activist who produced an award-winning video about breast cancer survivors. In 1989, five years after her initial diagnosis of breast cancer, she completed the video, titled “Victories.” The work details the stories of three women who survived breast cancer and the variety of treatments they underwent. The educational documentary, which has been broadcast on PBS and used by the American Cancer Society and other health organizations, earned a 1990 John Muir Medical Film Festival Award. Moorad was involved in several San Francisco Bay Area cancer organizations, including the Cancer Support Community and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Educated at Simmons College in Boston and the University of Michigan, Moorad began her career teaching high school English in Chicago. She moved to San Francisco in 1970 as a videographer in the Levi Strauss & Co. communications department, and later set up her own corporate video production company. On Sunday in San Francisco of breast cancer.

*

Brock Speer; Gospel Singer

Brock Speer, 78, member of the singing Speer Family and former head of the Gospel Music Assn. Speer, who was inducted into the Gospel Music Assn. Hall of Fame in 1975, began singing with his parents and siblings in 1925, four years after the family started performing. He served in the military during World War II and then moved with the family to Nashville. In addition to singing with the family, Speer and his brother Ben worked as backup vocalists for country singer Chet Atkins during recording sessions in the 1950s. The Speer Family, which recorded on such labels as Bullet, Columbia, RCA, Benson, HeartWarming and Homeland, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year groups were allowed. The Speers are the only group to receive the Gospel Music Assn. Lifetime Achievement Award. With Brock Speer in failing health, the singing group disbanded after a final concert last September. Speer had served as president, chairman of the board and permanent board member of the Gospel Music Assn. On Monday in Nashville.

*

Vera Tolstoy; Novelist’s Granddaughter

Countess Vera Tolstoy, 95, granddaughter of Russian author Leo Tolstoy and former announcer for Voice of America. The doyenne of the Tolstoy clan, she was the only one of the great Russian author’s 187 direct descendants who had a personal memory of life on the Tolstoy estate at Yasnaya Polyana. She was 7 at the death of Tolstoy, the author of such classics as “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina,” and fled Russia in 1920 as the Bolshevik revolution was underway. She did not return until seven decades later, when three generations of Tolstoys from four continents gathered for a family reunion at the estate that served as a backdrop for several novels. “We have been overwhelmed by the attention. The reverence of ordinary Russians for anything to do with Tolstoy is incredible,” Vera Tolstoy said of her grandfather during the 1991 reunion at Yasnaya Polyana, which is now a literary museum. She led a varied life after leaving Russia, working as a Paris nightclub singer, a perfume saleswoman and a Russian narrator for Voice of America in Washington under the name Vera Mansoureva. She retired to Florida in the late 1970s. On Tuesday in New Smyrna Beach, Fla.