The Fresno Bee from Fresno, California • 16

Thursday, March 12, 1970 THE FRESNO BEE Perry Mason Author Gardner Dies At 80 TEMECULA (AP) Erle Stanley Gardner, the lawyerturned-writer who created Perry Mason, is dead at age 80. His office, announcing his death Wednesday, said only that he did not recover from an illness for which he was hospital-, ized earlier this month. Other sources said he had cancer. His wife, the former Jean Bethell, his long-time secretary fore their marriage, was with him at the end at his Rancho del Paisano in a hilly area southeast of Los Angeles. He had lived there more than 30 years.

Spectacled, stentorian of voice, usually deadpanned in expression, the maestro of mysteries rose at 4 a.m. to dictate a daily average of 20,000 words into recording machines. With the help of eight secretaries, he often produced six books a year. Gardner also masterminded the Perry Mason television series during its nine-year run. On television, Raymond Burr played Mason.

William Hopper, 55, who played Mason's investigator, Paul Drake, died last Friday of pneumonia. Body Of Slain Girl Is Found After 17 Years NORWALK (UPI) -A highway crew working under a freeway unearthed a skeleton yesterday believed to be that of an 8-year-old girl who disappeared from an auction center nearly 17 years ago. Sheriff's deputies said directions to the grave beneath the Santa Ana Freeway were provided by Mack Ray Edwards, 51, Sylmar, who has been arraigned on two counts of murder and three of kidnapping in cases involving five other children. Deputies believe the skeleton is that of Stella Darlene Nolan, who was the object of: a widespread search after her disappearance June, 20, 1953. Edwards, who was employed as a construction worker while the freeway was being built and at the time of the girl's disappearance, was charged with two counts of murder in the disappearances of Donald Allen Todd, 15, in May 1969, and Gary Rocha, 17, in November 1968.

Deputies said another murder complaint would be sought against Edwards in the Nolan case today. Since Edwards turned himself in at the Foothill Division Police Station last Friday, deputies believe he may be responsible for a total of six murders in the Los Angeles area in the past 17 years. A 1968 book, "70 Years of Best Sellers," termed Gardner history's biggest selling author. As of 1969, Gardner's publisher, William Morrow said 167 million of his books had been sold in the United States alone, with uncounted millions more sold in foreign lands. They were translated into 23 languages.

Of Gardner's 142 books, 80 were Mason mysteries. His second string was a series about Bertha Cool, a woman detective, and her right-hand man, Donald Lam, written under the pen name A. A. Fair. Other Gardner pseudonyms included Carleton Kendrake and Charles J.

Kenney. Seventy-five Gardner books sold more than a million copies each. Thirteen were nonfiction, chiefly travel stories. Gardner's last two books, 1 recently published, were "Host With the Big Hat," an account of a visit to Mexico, and "Cops on Campus and Crime in the Streets," which he called observations "by a concerned Gardner gave much time and effort to the Court of Last Resort, a nonprofit project dedicated to freeing wrongly convicted persons. Born in Malden, Gardner traveled the country in his youth with his father, a mining engineer.

They settled in California. At 21, without university training, Gardner read law books and passed the California Bar examination. Entering practice in rural Oxnard, he recalled afterward, he defended "vagrants, peeping Toms and chicken thieves as if they were great I had clients from all classes except the upper and middle." He quit law after 10 years for fiction writing and adventure. After a year's writing under a pseudonym, used his own name in 1933 and published the first Perry Mason mystery, "The Case of the Velvet Claws." Buying his sprawling ranch in 1938, he employed three sisters who were secretaries and estab(lished his "fiction as he called it, in a redwood cabin. Gardner and his first wife, Natalie, whom he married in 1912, were separated 30 years.

She lived in Oakland for many years before her death in 1967. In 1968, he married Agnes Jean Bethell, the secretary who had traveled with him for 40 years. She was said to be the model for Della Street, Perry Mason's fictional secretary, played on television by Barbara Hale. Private funeral services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at the Garden of Prayer Mortuary in nearby Riverside.

Besides his widow, Gardner leaves a daughter, Mrs. Grace Naso of Bishop, Calif. Stop Killing Yourself Plastic Surgery Can Save Face By A Nose By Dr. Peter J. Steincrohn YOU ARE five-by-five, you may do something about being overweight, but you have to learn to live with being short.

But this philosophy doesn't apply if you have a long, unshapely nose with a bump on it. For example, listen to the following office conversation with a 40-year-old woman who has always "hated her nose" SO much it gave her inferiority feelings. My husband says I'm silly even to consider having plastic surgery. Do you think so, at my age? I can't look in the mirror. No matter how much your husband or anyone else in your family understands you, they can't possibly realize how much discomfort some people go through with any kind of impediment or deformity.

But how about having it done so late in life? You would have suffered less emotionally if you had had it done when in your 20s, but you still have quite a few years to go. Why continue to suffer unnecessarily? Some of the most grateful patients I know have had plastic surgery when in their 40s and even in their 50s and 60s. Your age isn't as important in making your decision as how you feel. Well, I've practically made up my mind to have done. My friends and family mean well, but I guess the decision is really up to me.

Sometimes, I think though, that one shouldn't fool with nature. Well-meaning friends will be the first "to forgive you" after they see the improvement in your appearance. Many, like yourself, are conscience-stricken about trying to improve on nature. I assure you that nature welcomes any help physicians can provide. NOW, HOW do I choose a doctor? This is perhaps your most important question.

Success depends upon the qualifications of the plastic surgeon. Don't just pick any name out of the phone book or take any doctor a friend may suggest. Contact your nose specialist. He will know who are the qualified men to do the job well. Or, get a list of plastic surgeons from your local hospital or from the secretary of the medical society.

A lot of time and trouble? Perhaps. But the most important steps you can take in having your nose repaired, How much will it cost? Fees vary but this shouldn't remain a question-mark too long. Cost should be discussed before surgery. It's important to know if you "can afford" a new nose. One happy patient who could easily afford the operation said, "Even if I didn't have the money I would, have begged, borrowed or 'you know what' to have it done.

Nothing has ever made me happier." Probing Solons Hear Piano Warranty Complaints WASHINGTON (AP) A Senate subcommittee investigat-1 ing product warranties was told about a piano manufacturer; that pledges to repair any defect-as long as the customer brings the piano back to the plant himself or pays to ship it. David A. Swankin, Washington representative of Consumers Union, said that when he wrote the firm asking about the c- tice he was told "the clause there so as to discourage i impulsive returns." He identified the firm as the Baldwin Piano and Organ Cincinnati, Ohio. Swankin, who called the warranty "ridiculous," introduced a copy of it which Consumers Union received from a disgruntled purchaser. "How's that for a warranty!" the customer had scrawled beneath the fine print.

Swankin testified before a subcommittee headed by Sen. Frank E. Moss, D-Utah, which is studying a bill that would pro- Morgana King Faces Marijuana Hearing VAN NUYS (AP)-Jazz singer Morgana King faces a preliminary hearing in Municipal Court April 8 on a charge of possessing marijuana, Miss King, 39, had the charge against her read at her arraignment in court yesterday. Officers said that when her chauffeur-driven limousine was stopped last Saturday night for allegedly running a stop sign, Miss King flipped a lipsticksmudged marijuana cigarette from a window. Dutch Says Barracuda 1970 Dr.

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Swankin said that Consumers Union, which publishes the magazine Consumer Reports, also had studied color television warranties and had found numerous unhappy owners. He said a survey made in 1968 showed 74 per cent of some 90,000 color-TV owners responding to the survey had required repairs. Administration witnesses told the subcommittee that the White House would be making recommendations on product warranty legislation before the end of the week. Richard W. McLaren, an assistant attorney general, said the proposal would require that any product valued at more than $25 and carrying a warranty or guaranty would have to meet the minimum standard of fitness for use.

McLaren said the legislation also would bar false or deceptive statements relating to consumer products, whether intentional or not and would spell out broad rule making authority for the Federal Trade Commission. Erle Stanley Gardner.