By STEPHEN SHORT

DIED. ROY ROGERS, 86, a fruit picker who found film stardom as a singing cowboy in musical westerns; in Victorville, Calif. Rogers made close to 100 movies after his big break in 1938 as Gene Autry's replacement in Under Western Skies. In the '50s the "King of the Cowboys," along with his actress wife Dale Evans and his trusty palomino Trigger, switched to television. The couple went on to develop a business empire that embraced clothing, real estate and the Roy Rogers restaurant chain. Trigger, who died in 1965, was mounted and displayed at the Rogers' home in Apple Valley.

REAPPOINTED. EDUARDO COJUANGCO, 63, coconut baron and favorite of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, as chairman of San Miguel Corp., after the resignation of its four directors; in Manila. Cojuangco's return to the Philippines' largest company comes 12 years after his eviction by President Corazon Aquino's government, which sequestered his 47% stake in the firm on charges he had acquired it through ill-gotten wealth. He recently regained voting rights on the shares and has an ally in newly inaugurated President Joseph Estrada, whose campaign he supported.

CONVICTED. SILVIO BERLUSCONI, 62, suave Italian media magnate and former Prime Minister, on corruption charges; in Milan. Berlusconi was sentenced to two years and nine months when found guilty of bribing tax inspectors in exchange for lenient audits at his Fininvest media, retail and real estate empire. A billionaire who served as Prime Minister for seven months in 1994, Berlusconi was handed a 16-month suspended sentence last December for false accounting.

DIED. LORD RAYNER, 72, chairman and chief executive of British retailer Marks & Spencer; in London. He joined the company as a trainee in 1953 and emerged a management guru who oversaw the expansion of the chain and its acquisition of America's prestigious Brooks Brothers, and who still found time to counsel Prime Ministers Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher on streamlining government. He was knighted in 1973 and awarded a life peerage in 1982.

RESIGNED. TINA BROWN, 44, much talked-about British editor who guided the New Yorker to new prominence, after six years at the helm; in New York. She had earlier edited the glossy monthly Vanity Fair before Conde Nast, which owns both magazines, gave her control of the venerable weekly. Under her stewardship the New Yorker moved from its literary roots and barged into the realm of popular culture, though her pizzazz didn't translate into profit. She will head a new venture backed by Miramax, a Disney subsidiary, to produce movies, publish books and create a new magazine.

SOLD. THE CANTERBURY TALES, 522, Geoffrey Chaucer's literary medieval pageant, to John Paul Getty Jr. for $7.6 million, the highest price ever paid for a book; in London. The leather-bound volume was printed by William Caxton, the first typographer in England, and remains the only copy still in private hands.

LIFE STORY We decided to turn the tables on three biographers and find out whether they would like to be the subject of a biography by another author. Their answers:

Robert A. Caro, biographer of Lyndon Johnson: "Yes, with all my heart. There's so much about myself that I don't understand, and I'd love to have it explained to me. The only problem is, Who's going to write it?...I would pick Lady Bird Johnson. I've never heard her say an unkind word about anyone."

Lady Antonia Fraser, biographer of Oliver Cromwell: "If I were alive, I would detest it because I don't like living biographies which are either muckraking or hagiographical. If I were dead, I still wouldn't want it...I wouldn't want the whole truth about me told. I don't feel I'm so perfect that I would like it recorded."

A. Scott Berg, author of an upcoming biography of Charles Lindbergh: "[The index of a good biography] provides a glimpse of the surrounding characters you will meet. Because I've been fortunate enough to befriend some fascinating people, I'd be happy to be a biographee--but not while my index is still growing."