Milestones: Dec. 24, 1965

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Died. Eslanda Goode Robeson, 69, wife and biographer of Baritone Paul Robeson, Negro (1930), a fellow traveler who joined Robeson on his trips to Communist countries in the '30s and '40s and then into self-exile in Britain in 1958, during which Paul became ill and reportedly disillusioned with Communism, though she stiffly maintained, on their return to the U.S. for good in 1963, that "he still thinks Communism is terrific and he always will"; after a long illness; in Manhattan.

Died. Tito Schipa, 75, Italian opera star, a peppery tenor who, saying that hours spent in practice are wasted ("Singing is not like athletics—you don't get any better by exercise"), nursed his voice through a 54-year career, first in romantic opera, scoring successes in the U.S. with the Chicago Civic Opera in the '20s and New York's Metropolitan Opera in the early '40s, and later in concerts, to which he turned in his 60s to pursue an only slightly less vigorous career; of diabetic cardiovascular disease; in Manhattan.

Died. Major General Raymond W. Bliss, 77, former (1947-51) Army Surgeon General who, as his service's top medical officer, was instrumental in unifying the armed forces medical-supply system, pushed for higher fitness standards among draftees, and generally improved combat medical facilities to the point where he was able to report a Korean War death rate among wounded of just under 2% (vs. 4.5% in World War II); of complications from emphysema; in Tucson, Arizona.

Died. Lord Ismay, 78, Britain's wartime chief of staff and confidante of Winston Churchill, a strapping, pug-jawed soldier who won the respect of Allied brass at conferences from Casablanca to Yalta as Churchill's tough but tactful "man with the oilcan" by putting machinery in motion to implement the statesman's broad decisions and showing a sure diplomatic hand which he later used in 1952-57 as NATO's first secretary-general; of congestive heart failure; in Broadway, England.