Obituaries - July 18, 1999

Clarence Harris; Ran Diner Where Sit-Ins Began

Clarence L. “Curly” Harris, 94, who managed the Greensboro, N.C., lunch counter where the civil rights sit-in movement began. Harris was operating the segregated downtown Woolworth’s counter Feb. 1, 1960 when four black students from North Carolina A & T State University refused to leave after they were denied service. Years later, Harris said he was on the students’ side, but felt they should have taken their complaint to court. As hundreds of other students continued the sit-in for six months, Harris said he lost $150,000 in business and one-third of his profits and salary. Nevertheless, he continued to pay full salary to his counter and kitchen staff, including 13 blacks. The counter was ultimately integrated, and black students in other cities who drew inspiration from the Greensboro sit-in began similar protests. On Monday in Greensboro, N.C.

Leslie Alexis Marchand; Expert on Lord Byron

Leslie Alexis Marchand, 99, leading expert on the life and writings of Lord Byron, one of the most popular poets of 19th century England. His three-volume “Byron: A Biography,” published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1957, is considered the definitive work on Byron’s life. He also produced a 12-volume collection of Byron’s private papers, “Byron’s Letters and Journals,” which were published between 1970 and 1982. Byron’s known correspondence amounted to nearly 3,000 letters. Marchand discovered about 100 of them when he set off for Europe in the summer of 1947, convinced that many of the poet’s letters had never been collected and published. His detective work in what he called his “Byron pilgrimage” made him more than a diligent scholar. He was a scholar adventurer, or, as James Atlas wrote in the New York Times Book Review, an “intrepid literary historian.” Marchand’s work earned him the James Russell Lowell Prize of the Modern Language Assn. in 1973 and the Ivan Sandrof Award of the National Book Critics Circle in 1982. On July 11 in Englewood, Fla.

Jeannette Newton; Glendale Fund-Raiser, Volunteer

Jeannette Hunter Newton, 80, former fund-raiser and volunteer in Glendale community organizations. Born in Santa Paula, Newton spent most of her life in Glendale, where she was first married to Donald P. Hunter and, after his death, to Albert G. Newton, who survives. Her late parents, Edwin and Grace Hamlin, helped develop the Glendale and Burbank residential areas. She worked for the March of Dimes, the Camp Fire Girls, Community Chest and the Community Concert Assn., served on the board of directors of the Glendale Symphony Orchestra Assn., was active in several women’s organizations and was a volunteer at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. She received the Essie Hughes Hunter Award from the Glendale Symphony Orchestra Assn. in 1960, and was co-founder, organizer and first president of the Women’s Committee of that group. She was also co-founder and first president of the Brand Park Cultural Arts Center. In 1970, Newton received the Glendale Fashion Center Award for Community Service and in 1971 was recognized as Glendale’s Woman of Achievement. On July 8, her 80th birthday, in Laguna Niguel.

Steve Tamaya; Journalist, Political Aide

Steve Tamaya, 37, former journalist and aide to state Sen. Richard Mountjoy (R-Arcadia). Tamaya grew up in South El Monte and studied journalism at Rio Hondo College, which honored him years later on its 30th anniversary as one of 30 outstanding alumni. After serving an internship at The Times, Tamaya was a reporter at the Whittier Daily News before moving to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune in West Covina, where he worked for about a decade, mostly as a political reporter. He was known by lawmakers across the San Gabriel Valley for his sharp insight into the political scene and keen grasp of local issues. He continued his political reporting career at the Maui News in Hawaii before returning to California to experience politics from the inside, as a field representative for Mountjoy. Tamaya had been communications and marketing coordinator for the city of Diamond Bar since last summer. On July 3 in Pomona after a stroke.

Lupe R. Leyvas; Mother of “Sleepy Lagoon” Defendant

Lupe R. Leyvas, 100, mother of a defendant in the “Sleepy Lagoon” murder case. Leyvas, who was profiled in The Times this year, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, but crossed the border into El Paso at the age of 16 after Pancho Villa’s forces destroyed her family’s bakery. She married and settled with her husband, Seferino Sr., a laborer, in East Los Angeles. She became an American citizen and raised 10 children. In 1943, her 19-year-old son Henry was one of a dozen young men convicted of the murder of Jose Diaz in what became known as the “Sleepy Lagoon” case. Leyvas continued to maintain her son’s innocence and an appeals court eventually overturned the conviction and reprimanded the judge for his prejudice and hostility toward the defendants. Henry died in 1972. Leyvas continued to live in her home in Montebello, with two attendants. Services are scheduled for Wednesday at 9 a.m. at St. Benedict’s Church in Montebello. On July 14 at her home of natural causes.

Gerald Jordan; Influential Claremont McKenna Teacher

Gerald Jordan, 84, a founding member of the Claremont McKenna College faculty who later taught at Claremont Graduate School. Jordan was a native of West Virginia who earned his doctorate in economics from UCLA and taught there and at Stanford University before joining the Navy during World War II. In the spring of 1946, he was recruited by Robert Bernard to serve as assistant director of Claremont McKenna, becoming the first employee of the college after the hiring of founding President George C.S. Benson. Jordan was one of the most popular and influential members of the early faculty and, according to Kevin Starr, who wrote a history of the school, served as “Benson’s de facto dean of faculty and man-of-all-work while carrying a near-full course load.” On July 4 of lung cancer.

Ronald N. Yurcak; Key Figure in Rise of Junk Bonds

Ronald N. Yurcak, 57, a key figure in the rise of junk bonds in the 1970s and 1980s. A highly decorated Air Force captain during the Vietnam War, Yurcak went to work for Ross Perot, the founder of Electronic Data Systems Corp., in 1971 as a systems engineer. Yurcak also worked as Perot’s personal assistant and in the brokerage subsidiary of EDS, a computer services company in Dallas. He worked at Kidder Peabody & Co. and Merrill Lynch before joining Salomon Brothers in 1977, where he started and managed the high-yield bond trading and sales department. In 1985, Yurcak moved to Drexel Burnham Lambert in Beverly Hills, where Michael Milken had moved the firm’s junk bond operations. Yurcak was one of eight traders there, buying and selling billions in junk bonds, which are debt securities issued by corporations with poor credit ratings. After the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert, he went to work for a succession of financial companies in the United States and Hong Kong. On July 13 of a heart attack.