The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 1

1A Armstrong ties record with 5th Tour de France win, C1 The A State 112TH YEAR, NO. 209 SOUTH CAROLINA'S LARGEST NEWSPAPER Monday, July 28, COLUMBIA, S.C. WWW.THESTATE.COM CAPITAL FINAL 2003 Civil-rights activist Harper dies Attorney helped get black senators, representatives elected in S.C. By RODDIE BURRIS Staff Writer Longtime civil-rights activist and attorney John Roy Harper II lost a battle with lung cancer Sunday. Harper died at Palmetto Health Richland hospital in Columbia.

He was 63. "A good man is gone," said Ike Williams, a longtime friend and former fellow activist. "John came here as a young person with an unusual commitment to civil rights." Funeral plans for Harper were not finalized Sunday but will be U.S. troops search for Saddam in Tikrit FILE STATE John Roy Harper II, 63, died Sunday. announced by Palmer Memorial Chapel later this week.

Those who knew him many called him a firebrand said Harper never lost that commitment to civil rights. "He had very strong convictions," said Adell Adams, who SEE HARPER PAGE A7 Military targeting his hometown after narrowly missing new security chief From Wire Reports TIKRIT, Iraq American forces are focusing their hunt for Saddam Hussein around his Tigris River hometown after reporting a nearmiss Sunday in a raid to capture his new chief of security and perhaps the ousted dictator himself. Other U.S. troops killed seven U.S. DEATH TOLL As of Sunday, 243 U.S.

soldiers had died in Iraq since March 20, the beginning of operations there. Of those, 105 have been killed since May 1, when President Bush declared I major combat operations over. Iraqi civilians while searching for Saddam in Baghdad, according to eyewitnesses, and a U.S. soldier was killed south of Baghdad, the latest death in a spike of guerrilla attacks. Troops of the 4th Infantry Division acting on tips from informants hit three farms near Dancers step up Big Apple history campaign 0 RENEE STATE Richard Durlach and his dance partner, Breedlove, demonstrate the Big Apple, a dance that began in Columbia and swept the country in the late 1930s.

They plan a campaign to focus on the history of the Big Apple and its dancers. Mourners recall USC's Walker as visionary Longtime professor and ambassador remembered for diplomatic, academic feats By PAUL WACHTER Staff Writer LET'S SWING As part of its annual jubilee, Historic Columbia will present a workshop and dances featuring the Big Apple and other swing dances. The classes will be held Aug. 29-31 at the historic Big Apple, on the corner of Park and Hampton streets in Columbia. The classes will be led by famed swing choreographer Frankie Manning and local swing dancers Richard Durlach and Breedlove.

Individual classes are $25 per person, a full day's registration is $75 per person and advanced registration for all three days is $125. For more information, go online to www.historiccolumbia.orgor by call (803) 252-7742. SHARE YOUR MEMORIES Historic Columbia is soliciting memories from individuals familiar with the Big Apple dance and other social dances of the 1930s. The organization also is interested in interviewing any original Big Apple dancers. Historic Columbia seeks basic information, images and memorabilia that will help document this Columbia-born dance.

Contact Historic Columbia at (803) 252-7742. You also can send memories to us at The State. Contact Jeff Wilkinson at (803) 771-8495 or write him at P.O. Box 1333, Columbia, SC 29202-1333. Best known for his ambassadorship to South Korea and bringing a pre-eminent international studies institute to the University of South Carolina, Richard L.

Walker had a lighter side. "I want to say how much fun it was to mess up his hair," Braden Cleveland Bergan, one of Walker's eight grandchildren, told mourners Sunday. "We'd get it to stand straight VETERANS HONORED Ceremony commemorates 50th anniversary of the armistice ending the hostilities that split Korea. See Page B1 up, four inches high, and then he'd erupt and we'd run out of the room." The Trinity Episcopal Cathedral memorial ceremony for Walker, who died Tuesday at 81, saw light, familial anecdotes interwoven with highlights from a "formidable" career. Walker, known to his friends as "Dixie," was that "rare breed of American intellectual who thrived both in the policy bureaucracy and academic world," said Donald Weatherbee, a fellow professor emeritus and longtime friend.

Body ID'd as Baylor basketball player Authorities continue or the possible cause of death, search for evidence but said Denin slaying of Patrick nehy's family had been notiDennehy fied. Carlton DotANGELA K. BROWN son, who played By The Associated Press basketball at Baylor last seaWACO, Texas identified Medical exam- son been with Dennehy and had iners on Sunday a body living found in chest-high weeds near Dennehy since spring, has been Waco as that of Baylor University charged with Dennehy's slaying. basketball player Patrick Dennehy, The site where the body was found who had been missing since June is north of gravel pits where au19. thorities searched after Dotson's McLennan County Sheriff arrest last week.

Larry Lynch provided no other details on the condition of the body SEE BAYLOR PAGE A7 COMICS MONEY 4 INDEX 36 PAGES WEATHER MONDAY MONEY SECTIONS, B6 DI Rain possible Telecom packages ABBY B7 NATION A4 Today: Cloudy; afternoon Can wrapping several needs into one METRO B1 OPINION A8 storms possible. High 94, low bill really save you money? Compare CLASSIFIED TV D5 C7 MOVIES D4 SPORTS C1 73. Tuesday: Strong storms. bundle offerings, see our seven tips on 6 07770 000 00001 0 South Carolina deaths, B1 High 90, low 70. See Page A2 packages, and more.

See Page D1 RIDDER) NEWS 771-8415 HOME DELIVERY 771-8380 CLASSIFIED 771-SOLD INTERNET www.thestate.com INFORMATION FOR LIFE Thursday's capture in Tikrit of a group of men believed to include as many as 10 Saddam bodyguards. Soldiers learned from them that Saddam's new security chief and possibly the dictator himself was staying at one of the farms, Russell said. Hundreds of soldiers, backed by Bradley fighting vehicles, surrounded the farms as Apache attack helicopters hovered above. No shots were fired as about 25 men emerged from the houses peacefully. They were detained briefly and Saddam's hometown of Tikrit in a pre-dawn attack but learned that their specific target the security chief had left the area the day before.

"We missed him by 24 hours," said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who led the operation. The raid was prompted by SEE TIKRIT PAGE A5 Memories of dance, Columbia club are 'almost all says organizer of tribute effort By JEFF WILKINSON Staff Writer The Big Apple was the Electric Slide of 1937, a phenomenon that swept the country and then faded almost as quickly as it bloomed. It all started with black teenagers and young adults inventing dance moves at The Big Apple nightclub on Columbia's Park Street.

But the swing dance which was SO raucous, some clubs banned it ended up in New York City. There, it spread like a house fire across the nation, fueled by black choreographers, white swing composers and a dance teacher named Arthur Murray. Some people even claim it gave New York its nickname. On Labor Day weekend, dance partners Richard Durlach and Breedlove will kick off a campaign to record the memories and collect memorabilia of the original Big Apple dancers, black and white. "I want to find the dancers and their memories because they are almost all gone," Durlach said.

The two will conduct workshops and dances at the historic club at the corner of Park and Hampton Streets. The workshops are part of Historic Columbia's 25th Jubilee, an SEE DANCE PAGE A10 After teaching international relations at Yale University, Walker, a specialist in East Asian studies, came to USC in 1957 and founded the Institute of International Studies in 1961. "For some time it was the only such institute in the Southeast," said Weatherbee. In 1981, President Reagan appointed Walker ambassador to the Republic of Korea, where he served until 1986 longer than any other American ambassador. "He was the most successful ambassador to Korea," said Ken Shin, a USC sociology professor and native of Korea.

"He had great interpersonal skills and an unparalleled understanding of the culture." Walker While enamored of Asian culture, he was not blind to the political shortcomings of the continent. "He was the quintessential Cold War warrior," said Walker's daughter, Anne Walker Cleveland. "He saw the excesses and failures of China under communism the Great Leap Forward and the SEE WALKER PAGE A7.