Passages

The first Miss America, Margaret Gorman Cahill, 90, died of cardiac arrest and pneumonia on Oct. 1 in Bowie, Md. Cahill won the title in 1921 when she represented her home city of Washington. “I never cared to be Miss America,” she later said. “I am so bored by it all.”…

Actress Louise Lorimer, 97, who played Stagecoach Sal on TV’s Hopalong Cassidy, died of heart failure on Aug. 11 in Newton, Mass. Lorimer also appeared on Dragnet and Dennis the Menace and in Broadway’s I Remember Mama….

Comedian George Kirby, 71, famous for his impersonations ranging from Pearl Bailey to Bill Cosby, died on Sept. 30 in Las Vegas of Parkinson’s disease. From the ’60s until he recently fell ill, Kirby toured the clubs and in 1972 starred in the TV series Half the George Kirby Comedy Hour. In the late ’70s, Kirby, an ex-heroin addict, was convicted of drug trafficking and served 3½ years in jail….

Character actor Grady Sutton, 89, who appeared in more than 100 films, died on Sept. 17 in Woodland Hills, Calif., of natural causes. Sutton acted opposite Judy Garland and Katharine Hepburn and in 1940 played WC. Fields’ prospective son-in-law Og Oggilby in The Bank Dick.

Country singer John Michael Montgomery, 30, had a minor lesion surgically removed from his throat on Sept. 21. Montgomery plans to resume his tour on Oct. 20….

Elizabeth Taylor, 63, will return to the hospital in a few weeks for more surgery on her right hip, which was replaced in June. Taylor says the surgery left her with one leg shorter than the other, placing a strain on her back and left hip—which was replaced in early 1994.

On Sept. 20, romance novelist Jackie Collins, 58, became engaged to Los Angeles real estate developer Frank Calcagnini, fiftysomething. Collins, who has three daughters, divorced her first husband, fashion executive Wallace Austin, in 1965 and was then married to club owner Oscar Lerman for some 25 years until his 1992 death from cancer. The never-married Calcagnini has been friends with Collins for more than 20 years. No wedding date has been set.

U.S. representatives Susan Molinari, 37, and Bill Paxon, 41, of New York—the only husband-wife team in Congress—are expecting their first baby on May 24. Said Molinari: “This is the sign that the Republican party is continuing to grow in numbers.”

Police spotted Vice I President Al Gore’s daughter Sarah, 16, sitting outside a party in a friend’s car with an open beer on Sept. 29 in Chevy Chase, Md. She and 11 others were cited for underage alcohol possession. The offense could carry a fine of up to $500. Gore is a junior at National Cathedral School in Washington.

Actress Amy Brenneman, 31, wed Brad Silberling, 32, who directed her in Casper, on Sept. 30 at her parents’ home in Westport, Conn. The couple met two years ago when Silberling directed an episode of NYPD Blue, in which Brenneman costarred. It is the first marriage for both.