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Obituaries in the news

Eds: AMs. ADDS Champalimaud and Osmond. Separates for Cronin and King moved on national wire.

By The Associated Press

Antonio Champalimaud

LISBON, Portugal (AP) – Billionaire Portuguese industrialist Antonio Champalimaud died at his home Saturday after a prolonged illness, the news agency Lusa reported. He was 86.

He represented one of the families that dominated the Portuguese economy, inheriting a fortune accrued through cement, steel and banking.

In 1975, a year after the revolution that ended right-wing rule in Portugal, he lost his empire when his companies were nationalized. Champalimaud moved to Brazil and rebuilt his fortune with a chain of cement factories. He returned to Portugal in 1992.

Forbes magazine listed Champalimaud this year as 153rd in its ranking of the world’s richest people, worth an estimated $3.1 billion.

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Elizabeth Ann Swift Cronin

RECTORTOWN, Va. (AP) – Elizabeth Ann Swift Cronin, one of two women held hostage for 444 days after the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, in 1979, died Friday in a horseback riding accident, her family said. She was 63.

Cronin was the ranking political officer at the embassy when Iranian students angered by American policies seized the compound. She and Kathryn Koob, then director of the Iran-American Society, were kept largely separated from the 50 men also taken captive.

After her release in January 1981, she continued her State Department career with postings in Greece, Jamaica and London and served as a deputy assistant secretary of state for overseas citizens services. She retired in 1995.

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Betty Hughes

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Betty Hughes, a former assistant travel editor and travel writer for the Los Angeles Times, died May 2 of cancer, the newspaper reported. She was 73.

The Ohio native began her career as a reporter for the Cleveland Press in the 1960s, eventually moving up to travel editor.

She joined the Times in 1984, working as an assistant editor of the newspaper’s weekly Travel section and its themed travel edition of the Los Angeles Times Magazine.

She also wrote frequently for the newspaper’s Travel section, reporting from a variety of locations that ranged from the Caribbean to Nashville, Tenn. She retired in 1990.

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Alan King

NEW YORK (AP) – Alan King, whose tirades against everyday suburban life grew into a long comedy career in nightclubs and television that he later expanded to Broadway and character roles in movies, died Sunday of lung cancer, according to his assistant. He was 76.

King was also host of the New York Friars Club’s celebrity roasts and appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” 93 times beginning in the 1950s.

King played supporting roles in more than 20 films including “Bye Bye Braverman,” “I, the Jury,” “The Anderson Tapes,” “Lovesick,” “Bonfire of the Vanities,” “Casino” and “Rush Hour 2.”

King found his material at home, after his wife persuaded him to forsake his native Manhattan for Queens.

His rantings about suburbia, just as America was embracing it, struck a chord with the public and soon he was appearing regularly on the Sullivan show, Garry Moore’s variety show and “The Tonight Show.”

He also worked as the opening act for such music stars as Lena Horne, Billy Eckstine, Patti Page and Judy Garland, whom he joined in a command performance in London for Queen Elizabeth II.

He also appeared on Broadway in “Guys and Dolls” and “The Impossible Years.”

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Olive Osmond

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Olive Osmond, mother of Donny and Marie Osmond and other members of the performing family, died Sunday, a family spokesman said. She was 79.

She died of complications from a massive stroke she suffered more than two years ago. Family members were at her side.

She was born in Idaho in 1925 and married George Osmond in 1944.

The couple had nine children, 55 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.

AP-ES-05-09-04 2041EDT

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