Music Icon Dies, No Date for Agassi

By Stephen M. Silverman

Monday September 24, 2001 11:44 AM EDT

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DIED: One of classical music's most recorded artists, master violinist Isaac Stern, 81, died of heart failure on Saturday after a lengthy illness, a spokesperson for Carnegie Hall said. Stern was a solid musician (never flashy) and a living symbol of New York -- another sad loss for the already stricken city. Stern also helped lead the successful battle to save Carnegie Hall from the wrecker's ball in 1960 . . . STALLED: The wedding of tennis stars Andre Agassi, 31, and Steffi Graf, 32, is still on, though not planned for any time soon. "The question isn't so much are we going to," Agassi told the Associated Press, explaining that the two of them, who are expecting a child in December, will wait to marry "until the little one is around and everybody (has) kind of recovered." Meanwhile, on Sept. 29, Agassi will host the sixth annual Grand Slam for Children fund-raiser on behalf of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which aids at-risk children in the gaming capital (where Agassi and Graf live). This year's line-up includes Elton John, Don Henley, Brian McKnight, Tim McGraw, Dennis Miller and Ray Romano . . . RULED: Andrea Yates, the Houston mother who admitted drowning her five children in June, was found mentally competent to stand trial on capital murder charges Saturday by a jury of 11 women and one man. Yates, 37, who was suffering from postpartum depression, had pleaded not guilty to the crimes by reasons of insanity . . . NAMED: In New Jersey's Atlantic City, the 81st annual Miss America pageant was held late on Saturday with organizers and contestants doing their best to boost national spirits amid tight security. Despite speculation that finalists from New York or the District of Columbia might pick up sympathy votes, it was Miss Oregon, Portland State University student Katie Harman, 21, who walked off with the rhinestone tiara. Host Tony Danza crowned her.