Obituaries - May 12, 1999

Bobbe Brox; Last Survivor of Singing Sisters Trio

Bobbe Brox, 98, last survivor of the singing Brox Sisters. Brox was the middle sister of the trio that was popular in the 1920s. They became famous for their rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Everybody Step,” performed at the Music Box Theater in New York in 1921. They also appeared with the Marx Bros. and Bing Crosby and in the Ziegfeld Follies with Eddie Cantor in 1927. Patricia, the youngest sister, died in 1988, and Lorayne, the eldest, died in 1993. The sisters, who grew up in Edmonton, Canada, changed their name from Brock because a producer told them Brox looked better on a marquee. Bobbe Brox was twice married. Her first husband was William Perlberg, a William Morris agent who later became a producer. In 1969 she married songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen, who died in 1990. She was a longtime resident of Rancho Mirage, Calif. On May 2 in Glens Falls, N.Y.

James J. Humes; Pathologist at Kennedy Autopsy

James J. Humes, 74, the lead pathologist at President John F. Kennedy’s autopsy and a target of conspiracy theorists. Humes was chief pathologist at Bethesda Naval Hospital near Washington in 1963 when Kennedy’s body was flown there for autopsy after the president was shot in Dallas. The pathology team concluded that Kennedy was killed by two bullets fired from behind--a finding disputed to this day by those who believe shots were fired by more than one killer. Humes stood by his work and called the conspiracy theories “general idiocy” and “a tragedy.” Except for testimony before government panels, Humes rarely spoke of the autopsy and gave only one interview, published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. in 1992. He granted the interview to rebut talk that resulted from release of the Oliver Stone film “JFK,” which touted conspiracy in the assassination. “I can only question the motives,” Humes said, “of those who propound these ridiculous theories for a price and who have turned the president’s death into a profit-making industry.” Humes, who retired from the Navy as a captain, also served as medical director of St. John Medical Center in Detroit and taught clinical pathology at University Medical Center’s Health Services Center in Jacksonville, Fla. On Thursday in Ponte Verde Beach, Fla., of lung cancer.

Juliet A. Kepes; Artist and Children’s Book Author

Juliet A. Kepes, 79, a painter, sculptor and children’s book author who won a Caldecott Medal for her book “Five Little Indians.” Born in London, Kepes (pronounced Kay-pash) met the Hungarian artist Gyorgy Kepes when she was 17. They fell in love and the couple moved to America in 1937, so he could accept a position at the Chicago Institute of Design. They later settled in Cambridge, Mass. The couple collaborated on several art projects, including murals in schools and libraries. Juliet Kepes became best known, however, for writing and illustrating 17 children’s books, including “Beasts From the Brush,” “The Seed That Peacock Planted” and “Run Little Monkeys! Run, Run, Run!” Her approach to these works was relatively simple. “In my books I try to give children pleasure and some information about the creatures around us. . . . Good children’s books are for everybody.” Described as an elegant woman with a wry sense of humor, she once said of her marriage and her art, “All of it is a growth process. You never stop growing.” Among her survivors is her husband. In London on March 11 of heart failure.

Shirley Dinsdale Layburn; Emmy-Winning Ventriloquist

Shirley Dinsdale Layburn, 72, Emmy-winning ventriloquist. As Shirley Dinsdale, the entertainer earned the Emmy for Most Outstanding Television Personality in 1949, the first year the awards were given. Her show, named for her ventriloquism dummy “Judy Splinters,” appeared on Los Angeles’ KTLA from 1947 to 1950. Born in San Francisco, Layburn first began performing ventriloquism on radio there with a show called “Judy in Wonderland.” Layburn also entertained wounded soldiers for the USO in stateside hospitals during World War II. “One important thing I’ve learned,” she told The Times in 1950, “is not to be afraid of a handicap.” She said she bore lifelong scars from being severely scalded as a child, requiring a 14-month hospitalization. In 1950, she moved to New York, where she had her own children’s shows until her marriage and retirement from television three years later. After her children were grown, Layburn earned a degree in health care and from 1973 until 1985 was head of the respiratory therapy department of John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson, N.Y. On Sunday in Stony Brook, N.Y., of cancer.

Frances ‘Freddy’ Paine; Longtime Labor Organizer

Frances “Freddy” Paine, 87, labor organizer and activist for working women. Paine was an organizer for 70 years, beginning at the age of 16 when she rallied New York seamstresses to join the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. Throughout the 1930s she hitched rides on freight trains to lead other organizing campaigns around the country. In the late 1930s, she met her future husband, Harvard-educated architect Lyman Paine, at a meeting of the Workers Party. They became close associates of C.L.R. James, the West Indian Marxist and cultural theorist. In the 1950s she became part of a small group, including Russian-born Raya Dunayevskaya, Chinese American philosopher-activist Grace Lee Boggs and African American writer James Boggs, that published Correspondence, a newsletter written and edited by rank-and-file workers. In her later years, Paine, a resident of Lincoln Heights, focused on community issues and was active in the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood and Preservation Assn. and the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park. On May 3 at her Lincoln Heights home.