Milestones Mar. 15, 2004

RECOVERING. NEIL SIMON, 76, playwright and screenwriter, whose credits include Brighton Beach Memoirs and The Odd Couple; from a kidney transplant; in New York City. His publicist, Bill Evans, donated the kidney.

HOSPITALIZED. U.S. Attorney General JOHN ASHCROFT, 61; with severe gallstone pancreatitis; in Washington. Doctors are treating Ashcroft, who initially thought he had a stomach flu, with antibiotics.

ARRESTED. DAVID CROSBY, 62, founding member of two rock groups, the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; for the illegal possession of a .45-cal. handgun, a hunting knife and roughly an ounce of marijuana; in New York City.

OVERTURNED. Conviction of MOUNIR EL-MOTASSADEQ, 29; for aiding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; in Germany. Motassadeq was the only person convicted in connection with the 9/11 hijackings. A five-judge panel ordered a new trial, saying U.S. and German authorities withheld crucial evidence.

DIED. STEPHEN SPROUSE, 50, fashion designer and artist; of heart failure; in New York City. Sprouse, who began sketching for clothier Bill Blass at age 14 and designed clothes for Debbie Harry, front woman of the rock group Blondie, made the off-kilter downtown punk aesthetic accessible to chic uptown sophisticates. He also created the high-profile line of "graffiti" handbags for Louis Vuitton.

DIED. MARGE SCHOTT, 75, controversial philanthropist and former owner of the Cincinnati Reds; in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a wealthy widow, Schott bought the baseball team in 1984, but she knew little about the sport; she once settled a contract dispute by flipping a coin. Reds executives accused her of using racial and ethnic slurs. In a 1992 interview she said, "Hitler was good in the beginning, but he went too far." Several similarly offensive comments followed, and in 1999, under pressure from the team's limited partners, Schott sold her controlling interest. To many in the city she remained beloved for her gifts to charity.

DIED. JANE ENGELHARD, 86, art lover and grande dame of New York society; in Nantucket, Mass. Along with her phenomenally wealthy husband Charles, she was active in Democratic Party politics and helped Jacqueline Kennedy restore the White House. Her collection included the original presidential proclamation of the Louisiana Purchase. A trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1974 to '81, she also donated to such institutions as the New Jersey Symphony, some years paying the salary of the orchestra.

DIED. JEROME LAWRENCE, 88, writer and director, who co-authored 39 stage plays, including Auntie Mame, Inherit the Wind and The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, with his late writing partner of almost 50 years, Robert E. Lee; in Malibu, Calif. Twelve of the duo's plays made it to Broadway. While serving in World War II, the two helped found the Armed Forces Radio Service.

DIED. JULIUS DIXON, 90, rock-'n'-roll songwriter; in New York City. In 1955 Dixon scored his first hit single with Dim, Dim the Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere). He penned songs for several bands but remains best known for the Chordettes' buoyant 1958 rendition of Lollipop.