In passing

Edward R. Roybal, 89; Hispanic congressman

Los Angeles Edward R. Roybal, a pioneering Hispanic leader who spent three decades in Congress as an advocate for minorities, the poor and the elderly, has died. He was 89.

Roybal, who also served more than a decade on the Los Angeles City Council, died Monday at a Pasadena hospital of respiratory failure complicated by pneumonia, according to a spokeswoman for his daughter, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif.

When Roybal was elected to the House in 1962, he was the first Hispanic from California to serve in Congress since 1879. He was a founding member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in 1976.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised him as a champion for civil rights and social justice. Roybal “served as a symbol of Latino hopes and dreams,” he said.

Chalmers Goodlin, 82; early X-1 test pilot

West Palm Beach, Fla. Chalmers “Slick” Goodlin, a test pilot who took the X-1 aircraft to near-supersonic speeds but became a footnote in aviation history when he lost his cockpit seat – and the right to shattering the sound barrier for the first time – to a young Chuck Yeager, has died. He was 82.

Goodlin, who also flew military planes for three countries, died of cancer Oct. 20 at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla.

After 26 test flights in the X-1, Goodlin was on the brink of making the sound-barrier flight when he resigned over a contract dispute. Bell Aircraft Corp., the plane’s manufacturer, refused to pay him a promised $150,000 bonus for the final flight.

When the Air Force took over the program, Yeager achieved stardom on Oct. 14, 1947, at Edwards Air Force Base by becoming the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound. For the rest of his life, Goodlin remained bitter about the lost opportunity, and he and Yeager feuded publicly.

After his jet-fighter days were over, Goodlin owned a company that bought, sold and leased aircraft.

Michael Kilian, 66; versatile Chicago writer

Chicago Michael Kilian, a veteran Chicago Tribune columnist who also wrote mystery novels, nonfiction on public affairs and the Dick Tracy comic strip, died Wednesday after a long illness. He was 66.

The Toledo, Ohio, native spent nearly 40 years at the Tribune and wrote more than 6,000 articles on subjects ranging from politics and military affairs to show business, the arts and the niceties of “high society.”

Kilian’s wife, Pamela, said her husband suffered a serious liver ailment about a year ago but continued working until very recently.

Kilian’s 24 books reflected his wide interests. They included mysteries set during the Civil War and the 1920s, as well as novels about terrorism and presidential intrigue.

Cartoonist Dick Locher, Kilian’s collaborator on the Dick Tracy strip, said his colleague wanted to do everything in journalism. “He’d take a task and run with it,” Locher said. “He loved it. He immersed himself.”

Elmer Dresslar Jr., 80; Jolly Green Giant voice

Palm Springs, Calif. Elmer “Len” Dresslar Jr., who extolled generations of TV watchers to eat their vegetables as the booming voice of the Jolly Green Giant, has died. He was 80.

Dresslar died Oct. 16 of cancer, according to daughter Teri Bennett.

Dresslar was an entertainer and singer for nearly six decades. But his voice rang through millions of households when he sang the simple refrain, “Ho, Ho, Ho,” in an ad jingle for Green Giant foods.

Dresslar, a Kansas native, moved to Chicago with his wife in the early 1950s to study voice after touring with a production of “South Pacific.” By the 1960s, the Navy veteran had carved out a career singing in clubs, on television and in advertising jingles.

He periodically re-recorded the “Ho, Ho, Ho” for Jolly Green Giant commercials, most recently about 10 years ago. Bennett said her father auditioned for the Green Giant job without any idea his baritone would become so recognizable.

“He never got tired of it,” she said. “If nothing else, it put my sister and I through college.”