Milestones, Sep. 24, 1979

SEEKING DIVORCE. Karolyn Rose, 37; from flamboyant Philadelphia Philly Pete Rose, 38, one of the highest-paid players in baseball; on the ground of "gross neglect of duty"; after 15 years of marriage, a daughter and a son; in Cincinnati.

DIED. Dr. Agostinho Neto, 56, President of Angola since its independence in 1975; following surgery for cancer; in Moscow (see WORLD).

DIED. Ayatullah Mahmoud Taleghani, 74, an advocate of moderation within the Iranian theocracy, revealed upon his death to have been chairman of the secretive Revolutionary Council, Iran's chief ruling body; of a heart attack; in Tehran. Taleghani was the first religious leader to pronounce the monarchy "illegal" and the first to be arrested for doing so. He remained in Iran throughout the Pahlavi reign, spending a dozen years in prison, but also shaping the groundswell movement that brought the exiled Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. Known for his tolerance, Taleghani served as Khomeini's mediator in disputes with the Kurds and other dissident groups. His own differences with the leader nearly forced a showdown in April when Khomeini arrested two of Taleghani's sons. To popular acclaim, Taleghani warned then against a "return to despotism."

DIED. Joel Sayre, 78, maverick reporter and screenwriter; of a heart attack; in Taftsville, Vt. At 16, Sayre left college to join the Canadian army for World War I service in Siberia. After graduating from Oxford, he covered Gangster "Legs" Diamond and the underworld for the New York Herald Tribune. In 1933 he published Rackety Rax, an uproarious satire about football and the Mob, and followed it to Hollywood, where it became a film and he became a scriptwriter on such classics as Gunga Din and Annie Oakley.

DIED. Roy E. Larsen, 80, Time Inc. magazine marketing wizard, a creator of The March of Time and first publisher of LIFE, who was a top Time Inc. executive for 56 years, 21 of them as president; in Fairfield, Conn, (see PRESS).

DIED. André Meyer, 81, Paris-born investment banker who dominated Wall Street's aggressive Lazard Frères & Co. for 34 years; of pneumonia; in Lausanne, Switzerland. A star at Lazard's Paris affiliate before fleeing France in 1940, Meyer became senior partner at the firm's Manhattan headquarters in 1944 and turned a cautious house into a corporate merger machine instrumental in the making of such giants as RCA and ITT. A compulsive worker, he amassed a fortune estimated at half a billion dollars, became an adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and gave millions to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.