Obituaries - Feb. 25, 1999
Daken K. Broadhead; Helped Create Hollywood Walk of Fame
Daken K. Broadhead, 93, business and civic leader who owned a record-pressing factory. Broadhead was the former president and principal owner of Allied Record Co., which pressed records for the Liberty, Disney, RCA, Columbia, Tower, Mercury, Golden and Pickwick labels. He operated the firm, now known as WEA Manufacturing, a subsidiary of Time Warner, from 1945 until 1986. Broadhead was elected president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1959 and helped create the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1963 he co-founded Beverly Enterprises, which operates skilled nursing facilities. He served as president and a director of Bonneville Entertainment Corp. and vice president and a director of Deseret Trust Co. of California. Broadhead also had a career in agribusiness. Born on a Utah farm, he earned a degree in economics and marketing at Utah State University, and first worked as manager of U.S. and Canadian egg operations for Safeway stores. Broadhead served as a member of the War Food Administration during World War II. From 1953 to 1955, he was executive assistant to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson. In addition to serving four years on the San Marino school board, he was president of the Hollywood Rotary Club and bishop and representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and sealer in its Los Angeles Temple. On Sunday in Newport Beach.
Williard Espy; Compiled Rhyming Dictionary
Willard Espy, 88, author of a rhyming dictionary. In 1986, Espy published “Words to Rhyme With,” a 656-page volume that includes some 80,000 rhyming words. He also wrote the book “The Game of Words,” a collection of word puzzles. That volume grew out of his fascination with anagrams, words made by rearranging the letters of other words. Espy worked for several newspapers and magazines, including Reader’s Digest. He later became a book publisher and contributor to publications such as Harpers, Nation, Atlantic and the New York Times Magazine. His son-in-law is author George Plimpton. On Saturday in New York.
Dennis Ray Estes; USC Mathematics Professor
Dennis Ray Estes, 57, USC mathematics professor and algebraic expert. Estes wrote or co-wrote more than 40 papers on quadratic forms, number theory and linear and commutative algebra. He was vice chairman for graduate studies of the USC mathematics department for 12 years and served on the university’s graduate advisory committee. A native of Ada, Okla., Estes earned his bachelor’s degree at East Central University in that town and his master’s and doctorate at Louisiana State University. He spent two years as a Bateman Research Fellow at Caltech before joining the USC faculty in 1968. The USC mathematics department established the Dennis Ray Estes Graduate Memorial Fund in his honor. On Feb. 1 (announced Tuesday) in Pasadena of a heart attack.
Michael Higgins; Glass Artist and Designer
Michael Higgins, 90, glass artist and designer. The joint career of Higgins and his wife, Frances, spanned 50 years. Their vividly colored fused glass objects are displayed in such showcases of art and history as the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Corning Glass Museum and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. A native of London, Higgins was educated at Eton, Cambridge University and the London Central School of Arts and Crafts. He moved to the United States in 1939 and after World War II became department head at the Institute of Design in Chicago. He married graduate student Frances Stewart in 1948, and the couple installed three glass kilns behind the sofa of their tiny Chicago apartment and began producing art glass. In the 1950s and 1960s, they worked with major glass manufacturers and potteries to adapt their techniques for mass production, but in 1966 they moved to the Chicago suburb of Riverside to return to independent studio work. On Feb. 13 in Riverside, Ill.
Wallace McDonald; Inmate Protested Prison Conditions
Wallace McDonald, 71, the prisoner who slashed his own Achilles’ tendon in 1951 to call attention to Louisiana prison conditions. McDonald and seven other prisoners performed the self-mutilations to attract media attention to inmates’ plight at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. McDonald later said the eight men hoped by their act to get out of working in the prison’s field, where they feared they would be killed for an earlier escape attempt. The resulting publicity forced then-Gov. Earl K. Long to appoint a citizens committee to investigate the penitentiary. The panel found brutality, violence, drug trafficking, neglect, political interference and no rehabilitation programs. One study declared Angola “the worst prison in America.” But reforms did not occur until Long left office and federal courts took over supervision of the prison in the 1970s. On Sunday in Angola, La.
Lloyd Olen ‘Sunshine’ Parker; TV, Movie Actor
Lloyd Olen “Sunshine” Parker, 71, mounted U.S. Border Patrol officer who acted in films and television series. A native of Lawn, Texas, Parker served as an Army paratrooper photographer during World War II and became a horseback patrolman along the Texas-Mexico border. He studied chemistry at Sul Ross State College in Alpine, Texas. While visiting classmate Dan Blocker in Hollywood in 1962, Parker was persuaded to portray sheriffs and other characters on Blocker’s popular “Bonanza” show. Parker also had roles, often comedic ones, on such series as “Little House on the Prairie,” “The Fall Guy” and “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.” Among his many film credits were Clint Eastwood’s “Any Which Way You Can,” Warren Beatty’s “Reds,” “Cannery Row,” “Roadhouse” and “The Sure Thing.” In the early 1980s, Parker worked with the original MET Theatre in Hollywood. He also was a familiar face in television commercials. On Feb. 17 in Burbank of pneumonia.