Jermaine Magnuson, 87, the wife of the late senator Warren Magnuson (D-Wash.), died Oct. 14 at her home in Seattle.
Her death was announced by Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), who had worked on Mr. Magnuson’s Senate staff.
Mrs. Magnuson’s family said she married the powerful Democrat on Oct. 4, 1964, at a ceremony in the District hosted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife. The senator died in 1989.
In recent years, Mrs. Magnuson helped raise awareness and funding for diabetes research with the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute. She was also involved with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Edgar Villchur, 94, who invented ground-breaking audio equipment and hearing aids, died Oct. 17 at his home in Woodstock, N.Y.
Miriam Villchur Berg confirmed her father’s death but did not give a cause.
After serving as an Army electronics officer in World War II, the New York native opened a radio repair shop in Greenwich Village, where he built custom home high-fidelity sets. In 1952, two years after founding Acoustic Research with Henry Kloss, Mr. Villchur came up with the idea for the acoustic suspension loudspeaker, which was much smaller than the audio equipment of the era.
The company produced the popular line of AR hi-fi loudspeakers, turntables and other stereo components.
After selling the company in 1967, Mr. Villchur went into hearing aid research and developed the multichannel compression hearing aid that has become the industry standard.
— From news services