Gianni VERSACE ~~ Beatrice WOOD ~~ Judith YEE ~~ Herbert ZIPPER

GIANNI VERSACE ~ 1946 - 1997 ~~ Giovanni "Gianni" Versace was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy and was a charismatic and accomplished designer of clothing and theater costumes. He was influenced by Andy Warhol and modern and abstract art and considered one of the most colorful and talented designers of the late 20th century. Versace was among the first to revive the cat suit, to bring back the mini skirt, to show tights worn as trousers, to bring the bustier out at night and bead it. In 1982 his dresses made with fine metal mesh first appeared and were a hit. In less than 10 years, Versace built an empire worth $807 million. He used celebrities, including Madonna, as models for both the runway and print ads. The designer battled with a rare cancer of the inner ear. He was presumed to be in remission when, one July morning in the summer of 1997, returning from his customary walk on Ocean Drive, he was gunned down outside his ocean-front mansion in Miami Beach. He was murdered by the spree killer Andrew Cunanan, who committed suicide shortly after killing Versace. Madonna said, "I'm going to miss you, Gianni. We're all going to miss you. But I've got a pocketful of memories in my Versace jeans and they're not going anywhere." ~~ BEATRICE WOOD ~ 1892 - 1998 ~~ A ceramic artist who was known as much for her irreverent quips, beauty, bohemian lifestyle and famous lovers as for her luminous luster-glaze chalices and who inspired at least two movie characters died in Ojai, Calif. on her 105th birthday. An independent woman inclined to say whatever was on her mind, Ms. Wood famously attributed her longevity to "chocolate and young men" and just as memorably titled her 1985 autobiography, "I Shock Myself." In fact she was a lifelong vegetarian who neither smoked nor drank and who remained clear-minded enough to take up the computer at the age of 90. Until 1995, she worked at the potter's wheel every day, following a strict daily regimen in her studio. A member of the Theosophy movement since 1923, she had moved to Ojai to be near its leader, the Indian sage Krishnamurti. For the last four decades of her life, she dressed exclusively in bright Indian saris and wore large amounts of silver-and-turquoise jewelry, even when throwing pots, with her thick, hip-length gray hair twisted into braids or a bun. She was born in San Francisco and reared in New York and demonstrated an early affinity for art and nonconformity, much to the dismay of her wealthy parents. In the 1920s, two of her closest friends were photographer Man Ray and artist Marcel Duchamp. In 1993, she was the subject of a documentary, "Beatrice Wood, the Mama of Dada." ~~ JUDITH YEE ~ 1943 - 1996 ~~ Using DNA testing, medical investigators identified another victim of the crash of TWA Flight 800. The remains of the victim, Judith Yee, were recovered by divers four months after the crash. Miss Yee was a retired systems analyst for Mobil Oil who had lived in NYC for more than 30 years. Friends recalled how one of Miss Yee's main interests was her volunteer work in the Washington Square area on behalf of causes benefiting animals, especially dogs. Miss Yee helped establish the dog run in Washington Square park. Her dog, Max, a Cairn terrier, was killed with her in the crash off the southeastern coast of Long Island on July 17. ~~ HERBERT ZIPPER ~ 1905 - 1997 ~~ An inmate at Dachau, Herbert Zipper, started a secret orchestra and with a friend composed a song that became an anthem of the death camps. Born in Vienna, the son of a prosperous engineer and inventor, his family moved in intellectual circles and he studied at the Vienna Music Academy with Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss. In the spring of 1938, Mr. Zipper was arrested by the Austrian police and handed over to the SS and sent to Dachau and given the job of pushing cartloads of stone. He found himself in the company of other musicians, including members of the Munich Philharmonic. The musicians began scavenging for bits of wood and metal to make instruments. At one point, Mr. Zipper asked a sympathetic guard for wire and later found it under his pillow. The inmates were able to fashion 11 instruments in all. They formed an orchestra, playing regular Sunday afternoon concerts for the other prisoners in an abandoned outhouse. In September 1938 Mr. Zipper was sent to Buchenwald. Before Hitler devised his plan for mass executions, some Jews were still able to buy their way out of the camps and in February 1939 Mr. Zipper's father secured his release. From Buchenwald , Mr. Zipper went to the Philippines, where his fiancee, a Viennese ballerina, had fled. There, the two were married. Mr. Zipper became the director of the Manila Symphony but in early 1942, the Japanese invaded and he was imprisoned once again, this time for refusing to conduct the symphony for occupying forces. When the Japanese were defeated in 1945, Mr. Zipper conducted a celebratory concert of Beethoven's "Eroica" and Dvorak's "New World" symphonies in the bombed-out ruins of Manila's Santa Cruz church. In 1946, he came to the U.S., where he was a founder and the conductor of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra. In 1953, he moved to Chicago and founded the Music Center of the North Shore in Winnetka. Mr. Zipper moved to L.A. in 1972 and became projects director of the School of Performing Arts of the University of California. For the last 20 years of his life, he conducted concerts for children in the L.A. public schools. He is survived by a niece and a nephew.