Died. James Howell Street, 50, prolific manufacturer of historical novels (Tap Roots, Goodbye, My Lady), who began at 20 as a Baptist minister, became a newspaperman (A. P., New York World-Telegram) until free-lance success in the late '30s allowed him to devote all his time to his facile tales of slave trading,dueling and boudoir derring-do; of a heart ailment; at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Died. Bert Lytell, 69, for 66 years an actor in the theater, radio, cinema and TV; after an operation; in Manhattan. A matinee idol of silent films (The Lone Wolf, Alias Jimmy Valentine), he moved smoothly from leading man to character roles on Broadway (Lady in the Dark), served as president of Actors' Equity for seven years (1939-46).

Died. Patrick Anthony McCarran, 78,Nevada's longtime (since 1933) Democratic Senator and state political boss; of a heart ailment; in Hawthorne, Nev. (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS).

Died. Dr. George Harrison Shull, 80, longtime (1915-42) professor of botany and genetics at Princeton University, developer (in a never-ending series of experiments begun in 1905) of hybrid corn (along with Harvard's Edward Murray East, who was experimenting independently at the same time), which has resulted in a 25%-50% increase in corn production per acre; after long illness; in Princeton, N.J.

Died. George W. Armstrong, 88, multimillionaire Southern oilman who offered in 1949 to give Mississippi's struggling little Jefferson Military College $50 million in oil lands if it would teach white supremacy, admit only white Christians, got turned down by the school, which then had no trouble raising an unrestricted $100,000 from less prejudiced philanthropists; in Natchez, Miss.

Died. Robert Lee ("Muley") Doughton, 90, longtime (1911-53) Democratic Congressman from North Carolina, chairman under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee; in Laurel Springs. N.C. A self-made rich man (livestock, banking), shrewd, backwoodsy "Farmer Bob" took over the tax-initiating Ways and Means Committee in 1933, and for two decades (except for the Republican controlled 80th Congress) bossed it through the vast revenue-raising needed for depression and war. Determinedly cracker-barrel (Taxation is a matter of "getting the most feathers with the least squawks from the goose"), Tax-Planner Doughton tried to follow the fiscal center lane, grumbled disapprovingly about "Soak-the-Rich" programs at the same time he was denouncing a proposed federal sales tax because "it taxes the bread and britches of the poor."