LATIMES.COM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2020B
Harold Morton Morrison
January 14, 1929 - February 21, 2020
On Friday, February 21, 2020, Harold Morton
(“Mort”) Morrison passed away at age 91. He was
a loving and beloved husband, father, grandfather,
great-grandfather, brother, and uncle.Mort lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Los
Angeles, California, with his wife of 36 years,
Teresa Pierce.He was born to Esther and Irving Morrison on
January 14, 1929, in Buffalo, New York, where he
was raised. He graduated from the University of
Buffalo with a BA in psychology and drama.After college, Mort served in the United States
Army and was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
There, he was a chaplain’s assistant and then a
radio announcer – two roles that separately, yet
perfectly, employed his talent for guiding others
and showcased his booming voice.Ever the entrepreneur and adventurer, Mort
led a remarkably diverse professional life running
restaurants, managing an insurance company, and
trading on the exchange floor.Mort’s final, longest, and most distinguished
professional chapter was as a gifted financial
advisor and senior vice president at Morgan
Stanley. Together with Teresa – his business
partner of nearly 50 years – he used his intellect,
wisdom, and knack for all things financial to better
the lives of his countless clients.Mort worked hard and played hard. He
approached life with an amalgam of strength,
optimism, fearlessness, and can-do spirit. After he
and Teresa moved to Santa Fe when he was in his
early 60s, Mort learned to ski – and ski well. He
and Teresa travelled the world many times over,
from Mexico to Myanmar and Kenya to China. He
was also an accomplished lifelong photographer
who pursued this passion throughout his many
travels. Whatever his latest adventure or interest
was, Mort took immense pleasure in sharing it with
those he loved.Humor and charm were his calling cards.Mort is survived by his wife Teresa Pierce; his
four children, Marilyn Morrison, Ruth Rosado,
Alan Morrison, and Jennifer Lewis; his seven
grandchildren, Rebecca Fogel, Emily Rosado-
Solomon, Andrew Fogel, Adam Rosado, T.J. Lewis,
Alex Lewis, and Isaac Lewis; his great-grandson
Hudson Solomon; and his sister Joan Bleich.A funeral service will be held at 2:00pm on
Monday, February 24, 2020, at Hillside Memorial
Park, Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, donations
to any of the following organizations dear to
Mort would be deeply appreciated: the Santa Fe
Symphony Orchestra & Chorus; El Rancho de las
Golondrinas in Santa Fe; and The Food Depot in
Santa Fe.March 25, 1928 - February 19, 2020O’MELVENY, Stuart
Stuart O’Melveny, age 92, passed
away in Pasadena, CA, on February 19,- Stuart was born in Los Angeles
on March 25, 1928. He attended
Polytechnic School, Pasadena, where
he made lifelong friendships. Culver
Military Academy in Indiana was
followed by UC Berkeley. Stuart
married the love of his life, Mollie
Shea, in Los Angeles, CA. After several
years and opening up his auto parts
business, they moved to Pasadena
where they raised nine wonderful
children. Stuart was a dear loving
father and husband with a generosity
of spirit.
He was truly everyone’s “pal,”
but most importantly Mollie’s dear
beloved husband and best friend.
Stuart is survived by Mollie, his wife
of 65 years, his children Mary Schmidt,
Annie Fraser, Brian O’Melveny, Stuart
O’Melveny, Maggie Allred, Dan
O’Melveny, Michael O’Melveny, Peter
O’Melveny, and Charlie O’Melveny,
and twenty-one grandchildren.
A mass will be held at St. Philips
Church in Pasadena at 10:00 am on
Tuesday, February 25.
Mount Sinai Memorial Parks
Hollywood Hills 800-600-
http://www.mountsinaiparks.orgBERMAN, Saul
OBITUARY NOTICES
Place a paid notice latimes.com/placeobituary
Search obituary notice archives: legacy.com/obituaries/latimesHonor a life
go to latimes.com/placeobituaryFor Sale Companion Crypt, at Pacific
View Memorial Park in Corona Del Mar,
If Interested Please Call Marcy at 949-
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lbclinic.orgCremation ServicesKei Oshiro, 91 years old, passed
away on February 16, 2020. He was
born in Los Angeles and resided in
Torrance. Kei was a civil engineer for
the County of Los Angeles and retired
after 30 years. He and his family were
interned at Heart Mountain and he
was a Korean War veteran serving
in the USAF. He was predeceased by
his wives, Machiko “Mike” (d. 1974)
and Rosie (d. 1997) and is survived
by his sons, Gary, Daryl, Christopher
and Eugene and stepdaughter, Lynne
Marian, two sisters and a brother, ten
loving grandchildren and one great
grandson.
No service will be held per his
request.
http://www.fukuimortuary.com
(213)626-OSHIRO, Kei
ficials. In the individual con-
gressional districts, the
Democratic Party uses a for-
mula that takes into account
population and voting data
from the last two presi-
dential elections. No con-
gressional district will
award more than seven dele-
gates to the Democratic con-
vention or fewer than four
delegates.
Delegates are (sort of)
divvied up by vote totals.
Here’s where things get
complicated, because a
Democratic candidate for
president can win votes in
one of California’s congres-
sional districts and still not
be awarded any delegates.
The key in each of these
micro-primaries is that a
candidate must win at least
15% of the votes cast to walk
away with convention dele-
gates. End up with less than
15% of the vote in either a
congressional district or the
statewide primary, and the
candidate gets nothing. In
fact, those votes are com-
pletely cast aside: The un-
lucky candidates are
crossed off the list and the
vote percentages are recal-
culated.
In other words, if three
candidates split 50% of a dis-
trict’s raw vote — with 19%,
16% and 15% of the ballots
cast, for example — all other
candidates and totals are
discarded. The process then
starts over and each candi-
date’s share of what’s known
as the “qualified” votes is
calculated.
The simplest way to de-
scribe it is to imagine a dis-
trict where 100 voters cast
ballots. After the initial re-
view, only 50 of those ballots
— 19 cast for the first-place
candidate, 16 for the second-
place candidate, 15 for the
one in third place — are used
to award delegates.
Of the qualified votes, the
first-place candidate re-
ceived 19 of 50 (38%). The
second-place candidate re-
ceived 16 of 50 votes (32%).
And the third-place candi-
date received 15 of 50 votes
(30%). These percentages
are now used to award dele-
gates to each of the three
candidates.Rounding off for the final
delegate total.
In the hypothetical dis-
trict mentioned above, three
candidates will receive dele-
gates. Let’s assume that the
district is located in one of
California’s bigger cities and
voted strongly for then-
President Obama in 2012
and Hillary Clinton in 2016 —
and therefore will send sev-
en delegates to the Demo-
cratic National Convention.
The first-place candidatereceived 38% of the qualified
primary vote. Multiply that
by the total delegates avail-
able and the result is 2.
delegates, which would be
rounded up to 3.
The second-place candi-
date received 32% of the
qualified primary vote,
which translates into 2.
delegates — rounded down
to 2. And the third-place
candidate received 30% of
the qualified primary vote,
which results in 2 delegates.
The same system applies
for delegates awarded to
those who do well in the
statewide vote total. There
are 144 delegate seats
awarded in this contest,
some of which will be taken
by state party leaders and
elected officials. Only candi-
dates receiving 15% or more
of all California Democratic
primary votes will receive a
portion of these delegates.The results might not al-
ways seem logical — or fair.
The strict 15% threshold
might seem easy to supportin theory but much harder to
defend in practice — par-
ticularly because there’s a
very good chance that three
or more Democrats will be
strong contenders once the
polls close across California
at 8 p.m. on March 3. There’s
likely to be very little differ-
ence in support at the con-
gressional level between
candidates receiving 13%
and 15% of the vote, but a
huge difference when it be-
comes clear one of those
contenders will come up
empty-handed. On the other
hand, it’s possible that a
Democrat could be consid-
ered by national political
watchers as having been
shut out of the California pri-
mary based on statewide re-
turns — only to have actually
been awarded a smattering
of delegates from congres-
sional districts spread
across the state.Delegate totals may not be
known until April.
Perhaps the hardest
thing for everyone to accept
is that the complicated proc-
ess means that California’s
Democratic delegates really
can’t be awarded until state
elections officials finalize
the vote totals on April 2.
Even a fraction of a percent-
age point in ballots could
shift a candidate from win-
ning a few delegates to none.
In addition, official election
returns aren’t reported by
congressional districts until
the tally is complete — which
could potentially leave no
impartial voice to counter
the perception peddled by a
candidate’s supporters or
opponents in the first few
days and weeks after the
California primary.Primary can get complicated quickly
[Primary,from B1]
POTENTIAL voters wait in long lines to register at
the L.A. County registrar’s office in November 2018.Mark J. TerrillAssociated Pressforced his grandmother to
trade it for her own freedom
as she tried to flee Germany.
The painting ultimately
made its way to Spain, when
the Madrid museum pur-
chased it and hundreds of
other paintings from a Swiss
art collector.
When the couple asked,
the museum refused to re-
turn it and the two turned to
the courts for relief.
Neither lived long
enough for that day to come.
On Feb. 13, Cassirer died
at her home in San Diego at
99, the third family member
to die since the international
legal fight over the rightful
owner of the oil painting be-
gan, a court skirmish that
has dragged on since 2005.
Her husband died in 2010
and a daughter, Ava, in 2018.
Her son David now carries
on the pursuit of the paint-
ing.
“It’s been an odyssey of
pain and frustration for the
family,” said Sam Dubbin,
one of the attorneys working
with the family to retrieve
the painting.
Beverly Bellin was born
Feb. 19, 1920, and raised in
Cleveland, where as a young
Jewish woman, she felt the
stings of the war. She worked
as a secretary during the
waning days of the Depres-
sion, helping support her
family so her brothers could
go to college. Years later, af-
ter her own children were
grown, she graduated from
John Carroll University in
Cleveland.
She and her husband met
on a train and both became
active in their synagogue in
Ohio. In 1980, the two moved
to San Diego, where they
kept a copy of the lost Pis-
sarro on the living room wall.
The hazy backstory of
“Rue Saint-Honore in the
Afternoon. Effect of Rain”
began in the late 1800s when
the artist sold it to Claude
Cassirer’s great-grand-
father, who in turn gave it to
his daughter, Lilly. For years,
it hung in the family’s parlor
in Berlin. Claude said he re-
called sitting and staring at
the painting in wonderment
as a child.
But as Adolf Hitler rose
to power, the family began to
scatter. Claude Cassirer and
his father went to Prague,
and then on to Britain. Lilly
Cassirer, though, was halted
and forced to hand over the
painting in exchange for an
exit visa. Her sister stayed
behind and eventually was
killed in the Theresienstadt
death camp.
For years, Lilly Cassirer
searched fruitlessly for the
painting, finally giving up
hope of ever finding it when
the German government
paid her $13,000 in repara-
tions, an amount the family
came to see as yet another
injustice. She died decades
before the painting ever
resurfaced.
“My grandmother never
knew what happened to thepainting,” Claude Cassirer
told The Times in 2010,
shortly before his death.
The museum website fills
in some of the blanks, ex-
plaining that the painting
moved quietly through the
art world for years — seized
by the Gestapo, sold by a
Beverly Hills art gallery to a
collector, sold again at a
gallery in New York and dis-
played in Japan, Italy,
France and Germany by the
Swiss art collector.
The shadowy move-
ments of the painting were
not altogether unusual. The
Nazis delighted in plunder-
ing artwork, and hundreds
of thousands of paintings,
drawings and other pieces of
work disappeared into the
netherworld as the war
ground on. Stuart E. Eizen-
stat, a State Department
advisor on Holocaust-era is-
sues, told The Times that of
the 600,000 paintings
thought to have been stolen
by the Nazis, roughly 100,
remain missing.
And at first, Beverly Cas-
sirer and her husband be-
lieved that was the fate of the
Pissarro as well.
Then, a friend spotted it
hanging in the Madrid mu-
seum.
For years, attorneys for
the museum rebuffed every
legal advance by the Cassi-
rers, arguing that Spain’s
sovereignty gave it immuni-
ty from legal proceedings in
the U.S. When that argu-
ment failed, the museumchanged course and argued
that the statute of limita-
tions to the family’s right to
claim the painting had long
ago expired.
While a judge sided with
the museum, an appeals
court did not and the case
was returned to the U.S. Dis-
trict Court in Los Angeles.
Back in court, the cou-
ple’s lawyers argued that
both the museum and the
Swiss art collector over-
looked clear and obvious evi-
dence that the painting had
probably been plundered,
such as the remains of labels
and other identification
stickers that had peeled
away from the back of the
painting.
Judge John F. Walter al-
lowed that the Swiss art col-
lector had probably done a
poor job researching the his-
tory of the painting and that
the museum’s efforts to
authenticate its origins were
far from pristine either. Still,
he ruled their actions were
not criminal. Further, he
said, the museum had pos-
sessed the painting for a le-
gally binding period of time
and had long displayed it
publicly.
David Cassirer said he is
left with a nagging sense
that nobody has ever fully
atoned for the Nazi-era
crime.
“This is a painting that
was stolen essentially at
gunpoint,” he said.
Fifteen years on, the case
again is on appeal.BEVERLY CASSIRER, 1920 - 2020
‘Odyssey of pain’ over stolen art
[Cassirer,from B1]
Z
oe Caldwell, a
four-time Tony
Award winner re-
membered by Los
Angeles theater
audiences for her star turn in
Terrence McNally’s “Master
Class,” has died. She was 86.
Caldwell’s son Charlie
Whitehead said she died
peacefully Feb. 16 at her
home in Pound Ridge, N.Y.
Whitehead said her death
was due to complications
from Parkinson’s disease.
During her illustrious ca-
reer, the actress played
Cleopatra, Saint Joan,
Mother Courage and au-
thors Colette and Lillian
Hellman. Three of her four
Tonys came in collabora-
tions with her husband,
Robert Whitehead, who was
one of Broadway’s most pro-
lific producers of serious
drama.
She cited his influence inher decision to do “Medea,”
the ancient Greek drama of
a woman who is betrayed by
her lover and kills their chil-
dren in revenge. It won her a
third Tony in 1982.
New York Times critic
Frank Rich cited the flashes
of sensuality — which she
said derived from the study
of Greek painting and sculp-
ture — and wit that she
brought to the character.
“When, at last, the crime
is at hand, the actress fully
dramatizes the struggle be-
tween her hunger for re-
venge and her love of her
sons,” Rich wrote. “Like the
gods, we can understand, if
not pardon, the primal im-
pulse that drives her to the
ultimate act of annihila-
tion.”
“Master Class,” which
won raves at the Mark TaperForum in L.A. before moving
on to Broadway in 1995, was
another joint effort with
Whitehead. It won Caldwell
her fourth Tony and brought
Whitehead, as producer, the
Tony for best play.
She played Callas as the
opera superstar critiques,
cajoles and inspires a trio of
budding singers taking part
in the uniquely intense musi-
cal education session called
a master class.
“A performance is a
struggle. You have to win,”
she says as Callas.
In a 1995 L.A. Times inter-
view, Caldwell recalled her
childhood and how her par-
ents took her to the theater
regularly, even though “we
didn’t have any money” and
they could only afford seats
up in “the Gods,” meaning
the uppermost balcony.“Up in the Gods, they had
benches. And they had
‘packers’ — men who went
around with a short broom,
padded on one end, and gen-
tly pushed whoever was on
the end of the aisle, so they
could get somebody else in,”
Caldwell said.
She added: “There’s
something terrific about
that. It was such a visceral
thing, of sharing. That’s why
I always look up high when
I’m in the theater.”
Caldwell was born in 1933
in Melbourne, Australia, to a
family struggling to make it
through the Depression. In
her memoir, “I Will Be
Cleopatra,” she wrote that
she knew at an early age that
her job would be “keeping
audiences awake and in
their seats.”
She became the toast of
Broadway for “The Prime of
Miss Jean Brodie.” The story
of an eccentric Scottish
schoolteacher with pro-fas-
cist tendencies originated as
a novel by Muriel Spark.
Caldwell added Broad-way directing to her resume
starting in 1977 with a come-
dy, “An Almost Perfect Per-
son.” She was last on Broad-
way in 2003 as the Mystery
Guest Star in “The Play
What I Wrote.” She also lent
her voice to the “Lilo &
Stitch” cartoons and ap-
peared in the 2011 film “Ex-
tremely Loud & Incredibly
Close.”
Her husband died in 2002
at age 86, shortly after he
had received a special Tony
Award for his nearly 60-year
career. Among his other
honors were a best-play
Tony for “A Man for All Sea-
sons” in 1962 and a best-re-
vival Tony for “Death of a
Salesman” in 1984.
She and Whitehead had
two sons, Sam and Charlie.
In addition to her two sons,
she is survived by two grand-
children.
“I always knew I would be
an actor. I am an actor,” she
told the AP in 1986. “But be-
ing a wife and a mother still
seems to me to be some kind
of extraordinary stuff.”ZOE CALDWELL, 1933 - 2020
4-time Tony winner; star of ‘Master Class’
associated press
Ron FrehmAssociated Press
EMINENT ACTRESS
Caldwell played
Cleopatra and Medea.