Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 5

PHILADELPHIA- DAILY NEWS TUESOAT, JUNE 1. 197 1 Mem-ikmr Audie Murphy Bies in Plane (rash ROANOKE, Va. (UPIl. Actor Audie Murphy, the tough "little boy" soldier who won every medal awarded to Infantrymen in World War II, has been killed in the crash of a small plane on a Virginia mountainside. LT.

AUDIE MURPHY Medal of Honor AUDIE MURPHY in recent photo The body of the man who cheated death often on the battlefields of Europe was found on Memorial Day. Positive identification was withheld pending a check today of rays and dental records, but Murphy's wile, Pamela, was notified that the war hero-turned-actor was "presumed SIX BODIES found in the charred Aero Commander plane that crashed on a flight from Atlanta to Martinsville. Friday were removed from Brush Mountain last night and taken to a Roanoke hospital. "All the bodies have been terribly dismembered," said Dr. John Josko, a hospital official.

The 46-year-old actor, whose Hollywood career faded in recent years, was flying to Martinsville, about 35 miles south of Roanoke, on a business trip. The pilot overflew Martinsville in a thunderstorm and crashed into the mountain. MURPHY, WHO won 24 medals and killed or captured 240 Germans during three years of combat in World War II, recently became associated with Modular Management, a firm specializing in factorv-built homes and motels. He was flying to Martinsville to inspect a Modular plant. Aboard the twin-engine craft with Murphy were Claude Crosby of Atlanta, president of Modular; Raymond Prater of Chattanooga, a Modular attorney: Jack Littleton of Fort Collins, secretary-treasurer of the Lenoir Corp and the pilot, Herman Butier of Crossville.

Tenn. The sixth occupant was not immediately identified. MURPHY, a poor farm boy from Kingston. won the Congressional Medal of Honor for single-handedly driving off a German force of 200 men and 6 tanks while clinging a burning tank destroyer Superiors were reluctant at first to promote the baby-faced private because he "looked like a little boy." But Murphy rose to the rank of captain and commanded a company in the 3rd Division. Murphy did not adjust easily to civilian life on his return from the wars.

He gave away his medals to children and refused to capitalize on his fame as the war's most decorated American soldier. He finally tried movies, but soon labeled Hollywood "full of phonies." His first marriage, to actress Wanda Hen-drix, lasled less than a year His career went downhill with grade Westerns and he recently turned to investments in an attempt to recoup his ailing finances LEADING LADY, ON AND OFF SCREEN Audie Murphy was married briefly to actress Wanda Hen-diix. Here, they study script for co-starring roles. Acting Was Kid Stuff to Man of Battle By VERNON SCOTT HOLLYWOOD Murphy was different from other movie stars. Murphy called it play-acting.

Others called themselves artists. He had been "to hell and back" the title of his autobiography and the makeup box was kid stuff compared to an ammo box. "Acting is just a living with me. I'm not kidding myself. If it weren't for the medals I wouldn't be in Hollywood," he said once.

MURPHY DID NOT take his World War II heroics nor his designation as America's most decorated soldier seriously. Of killing, wounding or capturing on the battlefields faded with the years. Strapped for money, he appeared in one bad movie after another. He lost $260,000 in an Algerian oil venture. Residuals from TV showings of his old movies were attached by the taxes.

He and his second wife, Pamela, separated and reconciled. In 1962, he was accused of assault for allegedly punching a teenager but the charge was dropped. In 1970, he was acquitted in a trial for assault stemming from a brawl with a dog trainer over a fee. This year he was charged with possessing illegal blackjacks, but the charges were dropped after he argued he had authority to have them as a special officer with two law enforcement agencies. Pamela Murphy took the news of her husband's death sadly but calmly.

"It's terrible, after all Audie's been through in his life, to have it end this way," she said. Murphy's latest picture has yet to be released. Its title: "A time for Dvine." country near Kingston. Murphy grew up with a sharp instinct for honor and quick vengeance, ON HIS RETURN from Europe's war, his early acting as a contract player at Universal Studios was wooden and amateurish in "Bad Boy," "Sierra," and "Kid from Texas." But Murphy learned to handle a script as deftly as a rifle. He.

starred in more than 25 pictures. "Red Balge of Courage," and "The Quiet American" were artistic and box office successes. Another film, "To Hell and Back," which told Murphy's story, was a big money maker. But the baby-faced, cold-eyed man from Texas was an anachronism. The world had tired of war heroes.

Hollywood believed Murphy got in on a pass. "I don't give a damn what these SOBs think," Murphy said when he was broke and unemployed. "I can beat this town and make a living here and I'll do it. I'm not afraid of anybody at any studio. THE LUCK THAT kept him alive 240 German sol'1 Mo Telegrams-Stop-Western Union Struck nd collecting 24 what I had to phy's name, the Memorial designated medals, he sai do, like ewr.

-u But the Ironically it Dav weekend th grams but not affecting pn- vate and governmental serv for remembering America's warriors that death finally caught up with the most honored of them all on a Virginia mountainside. A sharecropper's boy in the hardpan WASHINGTON (TPI unions representing more than 20,000 workers struck Western Union today, stopping most public services such as tcle- Lover of Art Acquires A Genuine Jennifer ices. A spokesman for Western I'mon said the companv would curtail its public message services and would not handle telegrams, money and gifr orders. Telegrams recent I have become a secondare service of Western I'mon. THE SPOKESMAN said since most operations were automated, supervisory person nel would maintain leased wires, government and business services Telex.

TWX and the new Mailgrain serv ice maintained in cooperation with the Post Office. Repair services would be continued, a I though the spokesman said might be slowed Affected by the strike weie operators, repairmen and maintenance workers or the t'niled Telegraph Workers throughout the country and 3000 members of the Communications Workers ol America in the New York City norih ern New Jersev metropolitan area. Both unions turned down a company oiler ol a 2h percenr vvage increase over two yean and aked lor 30 percent when asked whose idea it was for the predawn ceremony during which one of the couple's friends got seasick. "What could be more beautiful than a morning ceremony in mid-channel," Simon smiled. He earlier said they were married outside British territorial waters because British residency requirements and the weekend holiday made a land wedding impossible.

MISS JONES divorced actor Robert Walker in 1945 and later married film producer David O. Selznick, who died in 1965. It was the second marriage for Simon, a food chain executive. He divorced his wife of 37 vears last year because of differences." LONDON millionaire art collector Norton Simon, his new wife, actress Jennifer Jones, "is it, as far as beautiful art goes." The 64-year-old Los Angeles businessman, who recently sold part of his art collection for S6.5 million, hugged his bride yesterday as an aide tried to get them through a mob of photographers to a limousine. Simon said he and Miss Jones, who won an Academy Award for her starring role in the 1943 film "Song of Bernadette," met four weeks ago and fell in love immediately.

They were married Sunday aboard a chartered yacht in the choppy English Channel. MISS JONES, swept her arm toward her husband Aim ACTRESS JENNIFER JONES AND HUSBAND NORTON SIMON leave London Hotel (or secret.