• August 26, 1996
• Vol. 46
• No. 9

Passages

By Jeremy Helligar

Unzipped: Fashion kingpin Calvin Klein, 53, and his wife, Kelly, 39, have separated after nearly 10 years of marriage, syndicated columnist Liz Smith reported last week. Klein's spokesman would not discuss the cause or whether a divorce is planned. The couple, who met 14 years ago when Kelly was Klein's assistant, remain, as they said in an Aug. 13 statement, "the best of friends."

Country singer Tammy Wynette, 54, filed a libel and invasion of privacy suit against The National Enquirer and The Star in U.S. district court in Nashville on Aug. 8, claiming that the tabloids paid several thousand dollars to obtain her private medical records from Pittsburgh University Medical Center, where she was hospitalized and treated for an abdominal disorder in 1994 and 1995.

Olympic Dream Teamer and Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon, 33, married student Dalia Asafi, 18, on Aug. 8 in Houston. This is the first marriage for both.

Former First Daughter Amy Carter, 28, now a graduate student in art history at Tulane University in New Orleans, will wed computer consultant James Wentzel, 26, in September. This will be the first marriage for both....

Actor Ben Kingsley, 52, is engaged to marry British TV producer Kate Townsend, 28. No wedding date has been released, and further details were unavailable.

Aviation pioneer Sir Frank Whittle, 89, known as Father of the Jet Age for developing the turbojet engine, died of lung cancer on Aug. 8 at his home in Columbia, Md. The British native was a Royal Air Force cadet when he patented the idea for the engine in 1930....

Hamburger magnate James Whitman McLamore, 70, cofounder of Burger King, died of lung cancer on Aug. 8 at his home in Coral Gables, Fla. In 1954, McLamore and his partner, David Edgerton, opened their first restaurant, Insta Burger King, in Miami. Three years later they dropped the Insta, switched from a griddle to a flame broiler and, voilà!, launched the Whopper....

Jazz bassist Oscar Brown III, 38 (a son of jazz singer Oscar Brown Jr.), died in an auto accident on Aug. 12 in Chicago. En route to help a stranded friend, Brown collided head-on with a car that was going in the wrong direction. The other driver was also killed.

Mellifluous crooner Mel Torme, 70, suffered a mild stroke on Aug. 8 in Bur-bank, Calif. He is undergoing tests at an L.A. hospital but hopes to make his Sept. 18 gig at the Hollywood Bowl....

Daytime diva Eileen Fulton, 62, who plays cunning Lisa on As The World Turns, is in good condition after undergoing an emergency appendectomy on Aug. 6 in New York City. Fulton is expected to be back at work at the end of the month.