Samdach Bhante; Monk Advised Sihanouk, Nehru

Samdach Vira Bhante, 110, a Cambodian monk who advised leaders of Cambodia and India. The Most Venerable Dharmawara Mahathera, known simply as Bhante to his family and friends, served as spiritual advisor to Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk and kept watch at the deathbed of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. The son of an upper-class family in Phnom Penh, Bhante was a lawyer, judge and provincial governor in Cambodia with a wife and young daughter when, at the age of 40, he walked into the forest to follow the teachings of Buddha. Educated in French schools and fluent in several languages, Bhante lived in huts and subsisted on raw fruits and vegetables and handouts from peasant farmers before moving to India, where he spent 45 years teaching and building a monastery. He gave up his possessions, cigarettes and alcohol, saying, “You are what you think. You are what you eat and drink.” Bhante came to California for what he thought would be a quiet life of meditation with his relatives, refugees from the Cambodian war. But he was soon asked to build a temple for Stockton’s approximately 16,000 Cambodians, and served as head abbot for many years. His ashes will be divided between shrines in Cambodia and India. On June 26 in Stockton.

* Vere C. Bird; Led Antigua to Independence

Vere C. Bird, 89, who brought independence to Antigua and founded the island’s ruling political dynasty. Rising from poverty and without formal education, Bird became a union leader who defied British colonizers in the 1950s to demand higher wages for sugar cane cutters. He led his country to independence from Britain in 1981 and is still revered for that accomplishment, despite scandals that subsequently tainted the family name. Although Antigua began rapid development under Bird as chief minister and later prime minister, it has in recent years become known as one of the most corrupt countries in the Caribbean. After Bird retired in 1994, his son, Lester, was elected prime minister and remains in office. Vere Bird served as president of the Antigua Trades and Labor Union for 21 years, then formed the Antigua Labor Party. Under his leadership, the country developed free secondary education, island-wide electricity, an international airport and a deep-water harbor. He was accused of dipping into health care funds, among other corruption charges. On Monday in St. John’s, Antigua.

* Lorraine Downing; Member of Lorraine Sisters Trio

Lorraine Elizabeth Downing, 84, the eldest of the popular 1930s singing group known as the Lorraine Sisters Trio. Along with her sisters Marion and Eileen Cox, Lorraine Cox performed for nearly 15 years, singing over NBC radio from Chicago and at Los Angeles’ fabled Cocoanut Grove with the Orrin Tucker Band. She left the group in 1941 to work with her first husband, Al Burton, marketing Lorraine Burton’s Caesar salad dressing. After the failure of that marriage, and her second to bandleader Horace Heidt, the former singer married James R. Downing and retired to the San Fernando Valley. On June 26 in Northridge of emphysema.

* Catholicos Garegin I; Head of Armenian Church

Catholicos Garegin I, 66, leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Garegin was born Nshan Sarkisian in Kassab, Syria, and studied at a seminary in Beirut, where he later became director. He was named a deacon in 1949 and took a vow of celibacy in 1952. He studied in the theology department of Oxford University in the late 1950s and in the 1970s led church dioceses in the United States, Iran and India. The church leader took the name Garegin after an earlier Armenian cleric. Garegin was elected catholicos in 1995, succeeding Vazgen I, who had held the post for 40 years. Most of the 10 million Armenians worldwide are believed to be followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church. On Tuesday in Echmiadzin, Armenia, of cancer of the larynx.

* John P. Howe; Chemist on Manhattan Project

John P. Howe, 88, a physical chemist who helped develop the world’s first nuclear reactors as part of the Manhattan Project. Howe was a 32-year-old chemistry professor at Brown University when he was recruited to study nuclear energy under physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Arthur Compton at the University of Chicago. Using the code name “Metallurgical Laboratory,” the team sought to create the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. On Dec. 2, 1942, they succeeded, and by 1944, large plutonium-producing reactors were operating in Hanford, Wash. Howe moved there to act as the Metallurgical Laboratory’s liaison. During his long career, Howe served as director of nuclear research groups at General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y., and Atomic International in Los Angeles and later was Atomic’s technical director in San Diego. He was also an advisor to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and taught at Cornell as well as Brown, and after his retirement, at UC San Diego. Born on a farm near Groton, N.Y., Howe earned a bachelor’s degree in science from Hobart College and a doctorate in chemistry from Brown. On June 13 in La Jolla, of complications after a fall.

* Dorothy Lee; Co-Starred in Comedy Films

Dorothy Lee, 88, an actress popular in 1930s motion pictures starring the comedy team Wheeler and Woolsey. She co-starred in 13 of the 21 RKO films made by Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, including “Girl Crazy” in 1932. Decades later, Lee wrote the foreword for Edward Watz’s 1994 book “Wheeler and Woolsey: The Vaudeville Comic Duo and Their Films.” Born Marjorie Elizabeth Millsap in Los Angeles, she began dancing in public at age 2 and by her teens was in vaudeville, billed as Dorothy Lee. When she was 18, Lee won a talent contest to perform with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians and star opposite Waring in the musical “Syncopation.” She made her motion picture debut in 1929 in the film version of that show, starring Wheeler. Lee made 28 films; the last, “Repent at Leisure,” was in 1941. She appeared in the 1939 stage show “Twelve Crowded Hours” with Lucille Ball. On June 24 in San Diego of respiratory failure.

* Keith F. Lister; San Diego Daily Transcript Publisher

Keith F. Lister, 81, the publisher who expanded the San Diego Daily Transcript into an important business and financial newspaper. Lister, a former banker, bought the paper in 1972 and shaped it into a local version of the Wall Street Journal. He hired additional reporters and worked with editor Bob Witty to cover business and finance with a competitive edge.Lister sold the Transcript in 1986 but stayed on as publisher until 1993. An award-winning yachtsman, he earlier founded Lister Investment Co. and became president of Southcoast Capital in 1962. Three years later, he was hired as president of City Bank, which was bought by California Canadian Bank in 1969. Born in Clio, Iowa, Lister first lived in San Diego during his World War II tenure in the Naval Reserve. After the war, he attended law school in Colorado and then returned to make his career in San Diego. On June 26 in La Jolla of cancer.

* John E. Pluenneke; BusinessWeek Manager, Editor

John E. Pluenneke, 66, former editorial page editor and international editor of BusinessWeek magazine. The son of an Army doctor, Pluenneke was born in San Antonio and studied history at the University of Virginia. After service in the Air Force, he returned to San Antonio to work in public relations for the Frederick Refrigerator Co. and later worked for the now-defunct Houston Press. Pluenneke joined BusinessWeek in 1963 in the Houston bureau. He was named manager of the Minneapolis bureau in 1965, and a year later moved to New York, where he served as a key editor and bureau manager. He became London bureau manager in 1975, returning to New York six years later as senior editor in charge of international coverage. After a stint in Europe as a correspondent and Bonn bureau manager, he was named editorial page editor in 1987. In 1993 he became senior editor of the international edition, a post he held until 1995. On Monday in Wimberley, Texas, of hepatitis C contracted from blood transfusions in 1983 during open-heart surgery.

* Frederick L. Skidmore; Opera Singer, Movie Publicist

Frederick Lee Skidmore, 66, opera singer who became a motion picture publicist for Warner Bros., Universal and Orion Pictures. Born in Merom, Ind., Skidmore began as an opera tenor performing in New York and Germany. In 1968, he joined the publicity staff of United Artists Pictures, where he worked with such films as “Midnight Cowboy” and “Yellow Submarine.” He then worked as a publicist for such entertainers as Jerry Lewis, Gina Lollobrigida, Catherine Deneuve and Melina Mercouri, and after moving to California, for Lorimar Productions and its hit television series “The Waltons.” Moving to Warner Bros., Skidmore helped launch such films as “Chariots of Fire.” At Universal, he publicized “E.T.: Tjhe Extraterrestrial” and “Missing,” among others, and for Orion, he supervised campaigns to promote “Amadeus,” “The Falcon and the Snowman” and “Something Wild.” On Sunday in Ensenada of heart-related problems.