Nancy Graham; Emergency Room Social Worker
Nancy K. Graham, 65, pioneering social worker who dealt with psychological trauma in hospital emergency rooms. Born in Chicago, she was educated at Stanford and Northwestern universities. After raising her family, Graham earned a master’s degree in social science at Azusa Pacific College and was a volunteer at Los Angeles’ Suicide Prevention Center. For the last 24 years, although breathing from a portable oxygen container because of pulmonary problems, Graham was an emergency room social worker at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. She helped patients and staff overcome what she called “psychotraumatology.†She also published articles on the psychological effects of trauma for the Journal of Emergency Medical Services and the Digest of Emergency Medical Care. She lectured at medical conferences across the country and instructed and consulted locally with the Los Angeles County Paramedic Training Institute, California Department of Health Services, UCLA and USC. In 1983, Graham was named employee of the year at her Lynwood hospital. On Thursday in Los Angeles of respiratory disease.
Darwin Joston; Actor in ‘Assault on Precinct 13’
Darwin Solomon Joston, 60, actor best remembered for his starring role in “Assault on Precinct 13.†A native of Kernersville, N.C., Joston studied theater arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and performed in “Unto These Hills†at Cherokee, N.C. After studying privately in New York, he appeared in “Carnival†and “Bye-Bye Birdie†and was active in Off-Broadway and summer stock theaters. He moved to Hollywood in 1966 and appeared in several television series, including “Hill Street Blues,†“Ironside†and “Rat Patrol.†He also had roles in the motion pictures “The Fog,†“Caine’s Way†and “Rattler,†among others. His best-known film, the 1976 “Assault on Precinct 13,†is considered a classic paraphrase of “Rio Bravo†with a modern-day youth gang siege of a nearly deserted police station. Joston was an actor and director with Theatre East in Los Angeles. On June 1 in Winston Salem, N.C., of leukemia.
Shirley Polykoff; Created Clairol Ad Campaigns
Shirley Polykoff, 90, advertising creator who coined the Clairol sales slogan “Does she . . . or doesn’t she?†For many years, Polykoff was the only woman executive vice president at the giant ad firm Foote, Cone & Belding. She was named 1967 Advertising Woman of the Year. When she wrote the coy slogan about hair dye in 1956, only 7% of women were coloring their hair. Her male colleagues thought the slogan was too suggestive, and Life magazine rejected a 10-page Clairol layout because of its double meaning. But Polykoff prevailed after suggesting that the magazine check with its women employees, none of whom thought it had a sexual connotation. Polykoff noted in her 1975 memoir that the women Clairol was courting would never admit getting “an off-color meaning about anything†and that when the ad ran, “everybody got rich.†Polykoff was also responsible for the follow-up hair color campaigns, “Is It True Blonds Have More Fun?†and “If I’ve Only One Life to Live, Let Me Live It as a Blond.†On Thursday in New York.
