The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 212

2003:09:24:22:38:40 B12 CALIFORNIA LOSANGELESTIMES cle as Wormley drove the couple down a Compton street. The gunshots, Wormley said, came out of nowhere. guys just started opening said Wormley, 28. were just innocent passersby. Believe me, if anything, I would go through that myself twice before I let that happen to my Investigators from the Los Angeles County Department initially said Price was shot after an argument with people standing outside a house on East Greenleaf Boulevard.

But more recently, Capt. Frank Merriman said the car may not have stopped at the house. Wormley said there was no argument. were just he said. driving, as Price was called by friends, grew up in Compton.

Last year, she bought a new home in Corona, but despite her successes, the 31-year-old nurse and businesswoman kept close to the black, working-class communities of south Los Angeles County. Wormley said it was easy for her to travel from the grass courts of Wimbledon to the neighborhoods where she grew up. was more down to earth than he said. Price was one of three daughters born to Oracene Price and Yusef A.K. Rasheed.

Oracene later married Richard Williams and the couple had Venus and Serena Williams. All five sisters considered themselves full- fledged siblings. When they were young, Richard Williams instructed them all in tennis. The way Richard Williams tells it a story now sports legend he was hoping to mold at least one daughter into an international tennis star so he could move the family out of Compton. Although the lessons paid off for Venus and Serena, Price never developed a passion for tennis.

But she showed her own ambitions early. At Lynwood High School, she enrolled in honors classes and hung out with high achievers and student government officers, according to Isadore Hall, a Compton City Council member who graduated with her in 1990, and other friends. Soon after high school graduation, Price earned a vocational nursing license. Ayear later, as the Williams tennis talents bloomed, all of the family but Price left Compton for Florida. Venus and Serena began training there under Rick Macci, who had guided the early career of Jennifer Capriati.

Price forged her own path, working as a nurse for nine years at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. She had a son, Jeffrey, with boyfriend Jeffrey Johnson. In 1996, she married developer and contractor Byron Bobbitt. The couple had two children, Justus and Jair, and moved to Moreno Valley.

They divorced in 2000, court records show. children became central to her life, and Barbara Beshears, young grandmother, said Price was determined to keep her family close. Price, she said, often dropped all three children off at house in Compton for baby-sitting. Price stayed good friends with daughter, Kolyn- da Johnson, Beshears said. With her work and her children, Price had a full life.

There was football practice for Jeffrey, 11, cheerleading for Justus, 9, and dancing and acting lessons for Jair, 5, an aspiring rapper. Price opened a hair salon in Lakewood with her best friend from high school. She also enrolled in a series of college courses, most recently in an effort to become a registered nurse. Beshears and others said Price would often doze off during visits when she sat down on the sofa. and success, that was a phenomenon, but all of that paled in comparison to the love in her Bobbitt said.

Price eventually began working part time for Venus and Serena as they became more famous, and their lives became more complicated. Price joined the family at many of the tournaments, accompanying them to the 1997 U.S. Open as well as Wimbledon. Friends and family said Price helped untangle the personal and business affairs, sending out faxes, e-mails and calls from her home. Although Venus and Serena eclipsed her in some ways, friends said, Price still saw them as her little sisters.

The fortunes trickled down to Price a trip to Europe, a Louis Vuitton handbag but she maintained an independent life. Many of friends said they were surprised to learn that she had famous sisters. Kamesha Keesee, friend and neighbor in Corona, know of the relationships until she saw Serena Williams sitting next to Price on a TV broadcast. called two days later and said, you tell Keesee said. said, wanted to make friends for who I Price met Wormley when a mutual friend invited her to a birthday party in April.

She was impressed by dancing, he said, and they ended up talking until sunrise. He said he was frank with her about the time spent behind bars for petty theft, having unlawful firearms and selling marijuana. He told her he was trying to pull his life together, he said, and she believed him. Soon they were seeing each other almost every day. Price was proud of the spacious home she purchased in the Corona foothills after her divorce.

Wormley said he stayed there as often as his parole allowed. In the hours before the shooting, Wormley said, he was in west Compton at a picnic with friends. Price, he said, was at his house in north Long Beach. They had plans for the evening, but Wormley said he lost track of the time. Sometime before midnight, he said, she drove to Compton to pick him up.

He got behind the wheel of white GMC Yukon Denali and drove the couple down East Greenleaf Boulevard. Price was irritated that stayed out so late, Wormley recalled. He said he put on some quiet music in the car. was dark that night super he said. thing you know, I see flashes to my side.

I know if from the front or the know how many shots were fired. I even know what race or creed Wormley said he got scared and hit the gas. look once at my he said. trying to get through this. trying to get away, trying to get her to safety.

Once I get to Long Beach a few blocks away see the back window is shattered. I look to the right and said, are you all I look at Tunde and there was blood Wormley said he drove to his apartment and she called 911. To his surprise, the authorities who arrived arrested him on suspicion of assault with adeadly weapon. Instead of charging him, however, they held him for allegedly violating the terms of his parole. While family buried her in the Hollywood Hills on Friday, he was in jail.

During interrogations, authorities told him other witnesses claimed he fought with people at the Compton house. Authorities accused him of being agang member, which he denied. On Sunday, authorities released Wormley. They had arrested an alleged gang member, Aaron Hammer, in the shooting. Hammer was charged Sept.

16 with murder. Police said they are looking for as many as four other suspects in the slaying. On Wednesday, Wormley was back home, angry at the police and mourning his loss. half my life right he said. even know how to feel right now.

not going to ask God why he take both of Tennis Half Sister Was Devoted to Her Family, Friends Say Shooting, from Page B1 Obituaries By Myrna Oliver Times Staff Writer Gordon Mitchell, a bodybuilder who joined entertainer Mae buffed all- male chorus line in the mid-1950s and went on to make about 200 B-movies, excelling in the and genre, has died. He was 80. Mitchell died Saturday night in his sleep at his Marina del Rey home of an apparent heart attack, said his personal assistant, Bill Comstock. The still-fit actor had been in good health, Comstock said, and had recently completed a film in Germany. Of all the European spaghetti westerns, sci-fi flicks and sparsely scripted fantasy adventures of ancient heroes saving fair damsels and suffering hordes, most noted film probably was Federico 1970 Mitchell played a robber in the colorful portrait of ancient Roman debauchery, which is still an art-house favorite.

Mitchell, who lived and filmed in Italy from 1961 to 1989, was featured in the Swords Sandals Festival presented in June by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. His showcased film was the 1961 Giant of in which he portrayed the prehistoric, loincloth-clad muscleman who endures torture in a weird futuristic world. did my own stunts. I tried to make everything Mitchell told The Times during the festival, adding that he often worked on three films at once and trained constantly off-camera, often lifting rocks when no barbells were available. On Labor Day in 2001, Mitchell, former Mr.

Universe Mickey Hargitay and five of their fellow celluloid he-men were honored by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks at Muscle Beach, where they first built the muscles that made them beefcake stars. In the late 1940s and early 1950s when the bodybuilders, including fitness advocates Joe Gold, Vic Tanny and Jack LaLanne, worked out at Muscle Beach, society matrons and celebrities alike would come to ogle. One admirer was the aging but canny Mae West, who realized decades before Madonna that scantily clad boy toys could enliven her stage act. The exposure earned Mitchell uncredited roles in some major A-list films of the 1950s, including of starring Ronald Reagan; Man With the Golden starring Frank Sinatra; and Ten featuring Charlton Heston. But Mitchell still give up his day job as a Los Angeles high school teacher and guidance counselor.

Not until muscleman Steve Reeves starred in the 1959 which touched off anew genre of movies about bigger-than-life heroes of ancient Greece and Rome. Then Mitchell moved to Italy and really started making movies. His first starring role was as Maciste, a strongman of Italian folklore turned into the better-known Atlas for American audiences in what was titled in the U.S. Against the Mitchell also played other mythical or literary giants: Pluto, Goliath, Igor, Ali Baba. The stern-faced bodybuilder remained in demand over the years as a general or other military officer of armies from various nations and eras.

The knockoff Hercules films were made cheaply in Italy and Spain, mostly by Italian production companies. The little dialogue they featured could easily be dubbed into many languages, making the bodybuilders international stars. Mitchell, like others, acknowledged that he never knew what was going on in a film because he read or speak Italian. Born Charles Pendleton in Denver, Mitchell moved to Los Angeles to attend USC. He served in the Army during World War II, seeing action in the Battle of the Bulge, and reenlisted for the Korean War.

Comstock said that he was unaware of any close survivors and that services were pending. Carlos Chavez Los Angeles Times GORDON MITCHELL At his Marina del Rey home in June, he is surrounded by posters from his movie roles. He played a robber in Federico UCLA Film Television Archive HE-MAN ROLE: Gordon Mitchell with Bella Cortez in Giant of did my own stunts. I tried to make everything Gordon Mitchell, at Swords Sandals Festival in June Gordon Mitchell, 80; Bodybuilder Made and Movies Hugh Gregg, 85; Former Governor of New Hampshire Hugh Gregg, 85, a former governor of New Hampshire and the father of U.S. Sen.

JuddGregg Wednesday at a medical center in Lebanon, N.H., after a brief illness. Amember of the Republican upper crust, Hugh Gregg served as governor from 1953 to 1955. Elected at the age of 34, he was the youngest governor. The politically moderate Gregg based his administration on the idea that only growth could keep New tax rates down. He did not seek reelection after his single term but lost in acomeback attempt in 1960.

The New Hampshire native graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School. He served in World War II and the Korean War with U.S. Army counterintelligence. He co-founded a law firm in Nashua, N.H., but spent much of his career devoted to his millwork, banking and manufacturing businesses. Louise Platt, 88; Last Survivor of Passengers in Movie Actress Louise Platt, 88, the last surviving passenger aboard the overland stage in the classic 1939 John Ford western, died of undisclosed causes Sept.

6 at a hospital in Greenport, N.Y. Platt played Lucy Mallory, the pregnant wife of a cavalry officer, on the Lordsburg- bound coach driven by Andy Devine. Her fellow passengers included John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell, Donald Meek, John Carradine and BertonChurchill. The daughter of aNavy doctor, Platt was born in Stamford, and grew up in Annapolis, Md. She made her Broadway debut in 1936 and her film debut two years later.

After Platt appeared in only four more movies before returning to the New York stage. Among her television credits were and Hitchcock From 1958 to 1959, she played Ruth JanningsHolden in the soap opera Guiding Platt was married twice, to Broadway director Jed Harris, with whom she had a daughter, and to director and teacher Stanley Gould, with whom she had another daughter. 8 Howard Russell Austen, who for the last 53 years was the life partner of writer Gore Vidal, died Monday in their Hollywood Hills home of brain cancer.He was 74. From Staff and Wire Reports PASSINGS Louise Platt in a 1938 studio photo. From a Times Staff Writer HermioneK.

Brown, a 50- year partner at Gang, Tyre, Ramer Brown, a leading entertainment industry law firm in Beverly Hills, has died. She was 87. Brown, who worked until the week before her death, died Tuesday at her home in Beverly Hills. The cause of death was cancer. was truly an exceptional and remarkable woman.

She was a great lawyer, a great partner, a great friend a great human said Bruce Ramer, one of the partners. Over the course of her career, she counseled Hollywood celebrities such as George Burns, Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood, Janet Jackson, Martin Law- rence, Groucho Marx and Steven Spielberg. Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Brown was a graduate of Wellesley College. She also attended UC Berkeley and the Sorbonne before working as a story analyst at 20th Century Fox. She went on to USC Law School, where she was first in her class and editor-in-chief of the law review, according to a statement from her law firm.

She joined Gang, Tyre, Ramer in 1947 and was made a partner in the early 1950s. An influential member of the State Bar of California, Brown served on that Executive Committee, Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law Section from 1984 to 1990. She was also a member of the board of trustees of the Los Angeles Copyright Society from 1976 to 1981 and served as president of that body in 1979-80. In 1937, she married Louis M. Brown.

He died in 1996. She is survived by her three sons, Larry, Marshall and Harold Brown, as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Services will be held at 4 p.m. today at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park on Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

Instead of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Louis M. Brown International Client Counseling Competition, Forrest Mosten, 11661 San Vicente Penthouse Suite 1010, Los Angeles, CA 90049. HERMIONE K. BROWN She was a 50-year partner at Gang, Tyre, Ramer Brown, an entertainment industry law firm, and she worked until the week before her death. Hermione K.

Brown, 87; Partner at Law Firm Counseled Stars.