AP Features, May 14th, 2007
William Becker
KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) _ William Becker, who co-founded the Motel 6 chain, has died. He was 85.
Becker died of a heart attack April 2 in a Kingman hospital, said his son, Tod Becker.
In the early 1960s, Becker and fellow Santa Barbara contractor Paul Greene came up with a plan to build motels that offered rooms at bargain rates.
They settled on a $6 room rate per night that would cover building costs, land leases, mortgages, managers' salaries and maid service.
The first Motel 6 opened in 1962 and was a 54-unit complex in Santa Barbara.
Motel 6 now has more than 880 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Becker and Greene sold the motel in 1968 but continued to work for the company until retiring in 1973.
Born in Pasadena, Calif., Becker worked in a painting contracting business in Santa Barbara with his father and brother after serving in the Navy in World War II.
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Stanley Holden
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Stanley Holden, a dancer in Britain's Royal Ballet who went on to teach generations of dancers in Southern California, has died. He was 79.
Holden died Friday of complications from heart problems and colon cancer, according to his stepdaughter, Mimi Stabile.
The youngest of eight children, Holden was born in the slums of London in 1928. His mother encouraged him to try ballet lessons when he was 13. Three years later he was accepted into the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company, which later became the Royal Ballet, Covent Garden.
At the Royal Ballet, Holden created roles in John Cranko's "Harlequin in April" (1951) and Frederick Ashton's "La Fille Mal Gardee" (1960) and "Enigma Variations" (1968). He retired in 1969 after dancing the travesty role of Widow Simone in "Fille" at the Royal Opera House. He received a 25-minute standing ovation.
Holden moved to Los Angeles in 1970 to become director of the Academy of Dance at the Music Center. He left after a year to establish his own studio, the Stanley Holden Dance Center on Pico Boulevard.
For the last 12 years, Holden had taught at the California Dance Theatre in Agoura Hills, giving classes until seven weeks ago.
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Les Hollingsworth
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ Les Hollingsworth, a former Arkansas Supreme Court justice and one of the first blacks to serve on the Little Rock Board of Directors, died Sunday. He was 71.
Hollingsworth's daughter, Terri Hollingsworth, confirmed his death of complications from pancreatic cancer.
Hollingsworth attended Talladega College in Talladega, Ala., then joined the Army. He received his law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1969. He then worked for about a year at what was then the state's only racially integrated law firm.
He became the second black to serve on the Little Rock Board of Directors and was a city director from 1973-77.
Hollingsworth was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 1984 by Gov. Bill Clinton. Hollingsworth served until the end of 1984.
He was disbarred in 1999 by the Arkansas Supreme Court after being accused of several violations of professional conduct.
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John K. Lattimer
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. (AP) _ John K. Lattimer, a world-renowned urologist who treated celebrities, cultural icons and top-ranking Nazis during the Nuremberg war crimes trials, has died. He was 92.
Lattimer, who died Thursday at a hospice near his home in Englewood, helped establish the discipline of pediatric urology and developed a cure for renal tuberculosis. His daughter announced his death.
For 25 years, he was a professor and chairman of the urology department at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York, where he also received his medical degree.
As an Army doctor in World War II, he treated hundreds of casualties during the Normandy Invasion at a makeshift hospital. He later was stationed in Munich and, during the war crimes trials, he treated top-ranking Nazis officials including Hermann Goering and Albert Speer.
In 1972, the family of President Kennedy chose him to be the first non-governmental medical specialist to review evidence in his assassination.
