Obituaries - Oct. 20, 1999

Sir Ralph Grey; Former Colonial Administrator

Sir Ralph Grey, 89, former colonial administrator of the Bahamas and the last governor of Northern Ireland. Grey became Lord Grey of Naunton in 1968 when he was appointed to the House of Lords. He served as governor of Northern Ireland from 1968 until 1973, when British Prime Minister Edward Heath abolished the province’s Protestant-dominated parliament and imposed direct rule by the central government. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Grey was appointed deputy governor-general in Nigeria in 1957, serving until 1959. From 1959 to 1964 he was governor of British Guiana, then was governor of the Bahamas from 1964 to 1968 and also governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 1965 to 1968. After his post in Ireland was abolished, Grey spent six years as deputy chairman of the Commonwealth Development Corp. and 10 years as president of the Britain-Nigeria Assn. He was knighted in 1956. On Sunday in London.

Hamilton ‘Terry’ Gilkyson; Disney Songwriter

Hamilton H. “Terry” Gilkyson III, 83, who wrote such memorable songs for Disney as “The Bare Necessities” for the animated film “Jungle Book.” That film was the last personally supervised by Walt Disney and considered one of his best. Gilkyson’s song was nominated for an Academy Award. During the 1960s, Gilkyson wrote a song a week for “The Wonderful World of Disney” television show and later wrote theme songs for such Disney films as “The Swiss Family Robinson,” “Thomasina” and “The Aristocats.” But he was a well-established songwriter and performer before joining Disney. Born in Mont Clare, Pa., Gilkyson served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and sang folk songs for Armed Forces Radio. Moving to Los Angeles to begin his songwriting career, he scored his first hit in 1950 with “Cry of the Wild Goose” recorded by Frankie Laine. Gilkyson personally recorded five albums with his group, the Easy Riders, and with them co-wrote such classics as “Marianne” and Dean Martin’s hit “Memories Are Made of This.” He also wrote “Greenfields,” recorded by the Brothers Four in 1960 and more recently featured by his daughter, contemporary vocalist Eliza Gilkyson. Terry Gilkyson’s songs have been recorded by such artists as Johnny Cash, Tony Bennett, the Kingston Trio, Mitch Miller, Spike Jones, Marlene Dietrich, Doris Day, Harry Connick Jr. and Louis Armstrong. On Friday in Austin, Texas.

Jean Jacobs; Child Advocacy Pioneer

Jean Jacobs, 85, nationally known pioneer in child advocacy. An orphan herself, Jacobs grew up to found San Francisco’s Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, funded by Gertrude Coleman. Jacobs, who served as the organization’s original president, remained on its board from its inception in 1975 until 1994. Born in Milwaukee, Jacobs grew up in the old Vista Del Mar orphanage in Los Angeles. She moved to San Francisco as a young woman and worked throughout her life to improve conditions for abused and neglected children. She was founding president of the bay city’s Homewood Terrace, a Jewish home for children; was on the board of the Family Service Agency and the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and was the first woman president of JACKIE, a foster children’s placement organization. Jacobs also was the guiding force behind a 1991 local ballot initiative establishing financing methods for San Francisco child and youth services. She created her first formal organization for children, Citizens for Juvenile Justice, in the 1960s after seeing a 3-year-old in a cell at Juvenile Hall. One of her early and continuing goals was moving children out of the facility into group and family homes. On Monday in San Francisco.

Jim Moran; Publicist of Outrageous Stunts

Jim Moran, 91, who sold iceboxes to Eskimos, hatched an ostrich egg and led a bull through a china shop. A longtime resident of Los Angeles and New York City, Moran developed a reputation in the 1940s and 1950s for staging outrageous publicity stunts to sell products or stage and motion picture productions. He went to Alaska to make the proverbial pitch to an Eskimo for a refrigerator company. Countering Abraham Lincoln’s second-term campaign slogan “Don’t Change Horses in the Middle of a Stream,” Moran did change horses in the Truckee River in Reno to promote a candidate in the 1944 presidential election. Two years later, he coddled an ostrich egg under a tailpiece made of feathers, hatching the egg and posing with the best-selling book “The Egg and I.” The book was later made into a comedy film starring Claudette Colbert. The Irish American prankster also walked a bull through Ovington’s china shop on New York’s Fifth Avenue. And to promote the Broadway show “Fanny,” he put a chimp in the driver’s seat of an English taxi with the show’s name painted on the trunk and motored around Manhattan, himself actually controlling the car from the back seat. The stunt garnered the desired publicity including a photo in Life magazine. James Sterling Moran was born in Woodstock, Va., and worked for an airline and a congressional recording studio before turning to publicity. On Monday in the Actor’s Fund Nursing and Retirement Home in Englewood, N.J.

Ann North; Volunteer, Mother of Oliver North

Ann North, 81, community volunteer and mother of Iran-Contra figure Oliver North. A native of upstate New York, she married Oliver Clay North and reared a daughter and three sons, including Marine Lt. Col. Laurence Oliver North. He became well known in 1985-86 while serving on the National Security Council staff during the Reagan administration. North was convicted of three felonies for helping funnel to Nicaraguan guerrillas the profits from arms sales to Iran. Ann North taught school and was a fund-raiser for her public library. She also worked with the Boy Scouts and was a docent at the Albany (N.Y.) Institute of History and Art. On Oct. 9 in San Bernardino.

Glen Payne; Gospel Singer

Glen Payne, 72, lead vocalist of the Cathedrals gospel singing group. Payne originally formed a trio in 1963 to perform at evangelist Rex Humbard’s Cathedral of Tomorrow in Akron, Ohio. After George Younce joined the three singers, the group became the Cathedral Quartet. Payne and Younce were constants in the group, which saw 17 other members come and go over the next 35 years. Payne previously sang with the Stamps-Ozark Quartet and the Weatherfords. His nearly 60-year career earned him inductions into the Gospel Music Assn. Hall of Fame, the Texas Music Hall of Fame, the Southern Gospel Music Assn. Hall of Fame and the Radio Music Hall of Fame. His Cathedrals group was nominated for 11 Grammys. Producer Debbie Bennett told friends that Payne spent his final day surrounded by family and singing “Victory in Jesus.” On Friday in Franklin, Tenn., of liver cancer.

Marshall Schechter; Child Psychiatry Expert

Dr. Marshall D. Schechter, 78, founding president of the Los Angeles Society for Child Psychiatry. Born in Chicago, Schechter earned his medical degree at the University of Cincinnati and served in the Army Medical Corps in Nuremberg, Germany, after World War II, examining Nazis on trial for war crimes. He was trained in both adult and child psychoanalysis at the Los Angeles Institute for Psychoanalysis and in 1949 helped found and was elected the first president of the Los Angeles Society for Child Psychiatry. Schechter taught psychiatry at UCLA, the University of Oklahoma, the State University of New York at Syracuse and the University of Pennsylvania. He was a nationally known expert court witness in child custody cases and helped amend privacy laws enabling adopted children to find and meet their biological parents. On Oct. 5 in Wynnewood, Pa., after a stroke.