Frank Sinatra

WASHINGTON -- Frank Sinatra and Kitty Kelley are at it again, locked in a bitter squabble that has all the makings of a grudge match: pugnacious, press-hating crooner vs. celebrity-stalking biographer. He sued her even before she pulverized him in print.This time, though, their battle is being played out in the halls of the Capitol, where "Old Blue Eyes" has no shortage of fans. His admirers are rushing to honor the ailing, 81-year-old singer with a Congressional Gold Medal before the final curtain falls on his half-century career.

Back then, when he came with his young wife and daughter to live in a little New Jersey town, Frank Sinatra wasn't "Chairman of the Board." He was a skinny boy singer, just starting to lay the foundation of his enduring show-business legend.In the 1940s, Sinatra, who died Thursday at 82, was "The Voice," the kid from Hoboken who had the bobby-soxers screaming and swooning in the aisles at the Paramount Theater on Times Square in New York.In 1941, he was named the country's most popular vocalist.

It takes a Big Band sound to battle the disco, punk, thrash rock, heavy metal and country-pop now dominating national soundtracks. But that's exactly what the Zim Zemarel Band has done in the greater Baltimore area for the better part of 50 years. And even though Zemarel himself died in 1999, at age 82, his former band mates Gene Bonner, 77, of Perry Hall, and Wayne Hudson, 68, of Pasadena, are still carrying the torch for the band, and for Tommy Dorsey- and Benny Goodman-style 1940s Big Band music itself.

Mary Leona Gage, the 1957 Miss Maryland pageant winner who was Miss USA for only a day before officials stripped her of her title because she was a married mother of two, has died in Los Angeles at 71. A son, Robert Kaminer, told the Associated Press Saturday that Gage died of heart failure at a Sherman Oaks hospital Tuesday. Gage was the only Marylander ever selected as Miss USA. And, like Vanessa Williams and Carrie Prejean decades later, she was not the last to become famous after a pageant scandal.

64 Frank Sinatra Jr. Singer 63 Rod Stewart Singer 59 George Foreman Boxer 55 Pat Benatar Singer 28 Sarah Shahi Actress

Sylvia Syms, 73, dubbed the "world's greatest saloon singer" by Frank Sinatra, collapsed and died on stage early yesterday at New York's Algonquin Hotel while performing an encore. Her 1956 rendition of "I Could Have Danced All Night" sold more than 1 million copies.

In her new book on former first lady Nancy Reagan, celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley charged that Mrs. Reagan had an affair in the White House with Frank Sinatra.What do you think? Do you think Mrs. Reagan had an affair with Frank Sinatra? Or do you think the author was just repeating idle gossip?To register your opinion, call SUNDIAL, the Baltimore Sun's directory of telephone information services at 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County) today until midnight.After you hear the greeting, you'll be asked to punch in a four-digit code on your touch-tone phone.

* Joe Pass, 65, a jazz guitar virtuoso who played with such legends as Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson, died of liver cancer yesterday in Los Angeles. In 1975, he shared a Grammy for best group jazz performance with Mr. Peterson and Niels Pedersen for the album "The Trio." Mr. Pass, who was born Joseph Anthony Passalaqua, also recorded with Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams and Carmen McRae.

James D. Johnson,78, an artist and illustrator who created album covers for Frank Sinatra and promotion posters for the movie "Ben Hur," died Monday of prostate cancer in Marietta, Ga.Hampartzoum Berberian,93, a composer of vocal, choral, operatic, symphonic and chamber works, died of cancer March 13 in Watertown, Mass.Ray Russell,74, a prolific horror and fantasy writer and a former executive editor of Playboy magazine, died Monday from complications from a stroke in Los Angeles.

Steve DouglasSaxophonistLOS ANGELES -- Saxophonist Steve Douglas, who played with performers ranging from Sam Cooke and Elvis Presley to Barbra Streisand Frank Sinatra, collapsed and died of heart failure Monday during a recording session at a Hollywood studio.Mr. Douglas, 55, whose real name was Steven Kreisman, played the blues with Duane Eddy and the Rebels at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater in 1958, and with Elvis Presley on the set of the early 1960s movie "Girls, Girls, Girls."