The Monitor From The Week Of March 8-14, 1998

IN PASSING

Eleanor Shuman, who was too young to remember more than the screams but recalled them vividly for more than 85 years, died on Saturday at a hospital near her home in Elgin, Ill. She was 87 and one of the last half-dozen survivors of the sinking of the Titanic.

Arkady Shevchenko, a top Soviet diplomat whose defection 20 years ago created an international sensation, died Feb. 28 in Bethesda, Md., from an apparent heart attack. He was 67.

Alberto Sartoris, a pioneer of avant-garde architecture, died Sunday in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was 97.

Lloyd Bridges, who survived a 1950s government blacklisting to build a five-decade acting career highlighted by the movie “Airplane!” and the early TV series “Sea Hunt,” died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 85.

Charles Edward Hall, the AIDS patient who fought in the Florida courts for the right to die with the help of a doctor, died on Monday at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 36.

TRENDS

Reversing a 20 year trend, the incidence of cancer and the rate of deaths from cancer dropped between 1990 and 1995, the federal government announced Thursday.