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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In passing

The Spokesman-Review

K.R. Narayanan, 85; ex-president of India

New Delhi, India K.R. Narayanan, a former president of India who brought a deeper meaning to the largely ceremonial position when he rose from the bottom of the country’s ancient caste system to become the first “untouchable” to hold the office, has died. He was 85.

Narayanan, who had been suffering from pneumonia and kidney failure, died Wednesday at an army hospital in New Delhi.

His elevation to the presidency in 1997 – three weeks before India marked 50 years of independence from Britain – fulfilled the vision of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the founder of independent India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement.

Gandhi believed the election of an “untouchable” as president would mark a symbolic end of the degradation of Hindus on the lowest rung of the 3,000-year-old caste system.

Commonly used a century ago, the term “untouchables” has been replaced by the more politically correct Dalits, which literally translates as “broken people.” It applies to nearly a quarter of India’s billion-plus population.

At his inaugural, Narayanan condemned “caste-ism” and said the election of “someone who has sprung from the grass-roots of our society … is symbolic of the fact that the concerns of the common man have now moved to the center stage.”

Fernando Bujones, 50; classical dancer

Miami Fernando Bujones, one of the greatest classical dancers of his generation and the first American to win a gold medal at the International Ballet Olympics, has died. He was 50.

Bujones had announced seven weeks ago that he had lung cancer, but he died Thursday in Miami of complications from another form of cancer, melanoma.

Although Bujones reached the pinnacle of fame inside the ballet world, greater renown was denied him by mischance. In the summer of 1974, for instance, the great Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defected at nearly the same time as Bujones won his ballet Olympics medal, overshadowing the young American’s triumph.

“Baryshnikov has the publicity, I have the talent,” Bujones said at the time. And he was half-right: Both had the talent, but in Cold War America, a defection from the Soviet Union created instant stardom like nothing else.

Bujones had ideal physical proportions for ballet – better than Baryshnikov’s or Rudolf Nureyev’s – plus an impeccable sense of style that constantly refined his state-of-the-art virtuosity.

David Westheimer, 88; American writer

Los Angeles Novelist David Westheimer, who wrote “My Sweet Charlie” and “Von Ryan’s Express,” which was turned into a movie starring Frank Sinatra, has died at the age of 88.

Westheimer died Tuesday of heart failure at UCLA Medical Center.

During World War II, the former editor and columnist for the Houston Post served in the Army Air Forces as a navigator aboard a B-24 bomber. His bomber was shot down by Italian fighter planes and he spent 28 months as a prisoner of war until he was released in 1945.

Westheimer drew upon his experiences when he wrote “Von Ryan’s Express,” a story about an American soldier leading his fellow POWs on a daring escape from the Germans in Italy.

In 1965, Westheimer wrote “My Sweet Charlie,” which dealt with racial tensions in a Texas town. The story focuses on a bond that developed between a black civil-rights activist and a white teen who is pregnant. Other books written by Westheimer include “Summer on the Water,” “Sitting It Out” and “Delay En Route.”