Obituaries - Sept. 7, 1999

Rosemary Bell; Woodland Hills Civic Leader

Rosemary Bell, 76, social worker and major civic leader in Woodland Hills. A graduate of Syracuse University, Bell grew up in Puerto Rico, where her father implemented programs for the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was fluent in Spanish and for many years handled Latino cases for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services. She was also president of the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce, a charter member of the Woodland Hills Woman’s Club and editor of Woodland Hills’ first newspaper, the Shopper. In 1985, Bell was named honorary mayor of Woodland Hills. On Wednesday in Woodland Hills.

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* Byron Benton Burnes; Sign Language Teacher

Byron Benton Burnes, 95, former president of the National Assn. of the Deaf. Known as “B.B.B.,” Burnes lost his hearing at the age of 15 when he contracted influenza and chickenpox. Born in Iowa, he taught signing at the Minnesota, Colorado and South Dakota schools for the deaf and for 28 years at the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley. He served as president of the National Assn. for the Deaf from 1946 to 1964. On Aug. 25 in Martinez, Calif.

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* Zaccheus Chesoni; Chief Justice of Kenya

Zaccheus Chesoni, 63, chief justice of Kenya. Chesoni was chairman of Kenya’s Electoral Commission when he was appointed chief justice by President Daniel arap Moi nearly two years ago. He was only the second indigenous Kenyan to hold the country’s highest judicial post since it gained independence from Britain in 1963. On Sunday in Nairobi of a heart attack.

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* Peter Gilman; Writer of ‘Such Sweet Thunder’

Peter Gilman, 73, a writer whose novel was turned into the 1963 Charlton Heston film “Diamond Head.” A native of New York and graduate of UCLA, Gilman worked as a journalist for the Monterey Peninsula Herald, Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. His novel, “Such Sweet Thunder,” became a best-seller and was purchased by Columbia Pictures for $100,000 in 1959. With his financial success, Gilman moved to Paris for a time, trained polo ponies in Argentina, was an artist and commercial fisherman in Mexico and then returned to Hawaii. On Wednesday in Hilo, Hawaii.

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* Joni Mattis; Early Playboy Bunny, Aide to Hugh Hefner

Joni Mattis, 60, one of the earliest Playboy bunnies and longtime assistant to the empire’s founder, Hugh Hefner. Born in Chicago, Mattis was appearing on the syndicated television series “Playboy’s Penthouse” when she met Hefner. She became a bunny at Hefner’s first Playboy Club in Chicago in 1960 and was Playboy magazine’s Playmate for November 1960. After moving to California with Playboy Enterprises Inc., she became Hefner’s secretary and personal assistant. She also worked as talent coordinator on the syndicated television series, “Playboy After Dark.” Mattis had been Hefner’s social secretary since he bought the Playboy Mansion West in Holmby Hills in 1971. On Saturday in Los Angeles of cancer.