Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 8, 1993 TAG: 9302080116
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press and Knight-Ridder/Tribune reports
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
HE BATTLED TO THE END
Arthur Ashe was lucid in his last hours and alert enough to make the "OK" sign shortly before his death from AIDS-related pneumonia.Donald Dell, Ashe's agent and friend of 25 years, and Dr. Henry Murray, Ashe's attending physician, held an emotional news conference Sunday at New York Hospital, where Ashe, 49, died Saturday.
"He used to say, `Don't feel sorry for me,' " said Dell, who frequently choked up. "He clearly felt he was not a victim. Whatever happened, he would rise to that particular occasion. It was just another challenge."
President Clinton called Ashe "a true American hero and a great example to us all," adding in a statement that "Arthur rose from the segregated courts of Richmond, Va., to the championship at Wimbledon displaying grace, strength and courage every step of the way."
"He was a friend of mine," Clinton said Sunday as he walked to church, "I'm really sad about it."
Murray said Ashe had been hospitalized with pneumonia for two weeks in January and was ill off and on for several months. Ashe gave a speech as recently as Tuesday but soon suffered from a fever and other complications that began late Wednesday, Murray said.
"He was fully alert, asking questions. He was concerned about who the next attorney general would be," Murray said of Ashe's last hours. Murray made the OK sign with his thumb and forefinger, saying "his last gesture to me was this."
Murray said Ashe's swift decline was "unusual but happens." More extraordinary, he said, was Ashe's excellent health in the 4 1/2 years since he was diagnosed. Murray said Ashe kept a very busy schedule.
Dell said he had discussed Ashe's strenuous schedule with Ashe's wife, Jeanne.
"He felt it was therapeutic," said Dell, president of ProServe Inc. "He said it was better than sitting home and thinking about dying."
Ashe, the only black man ever to win the Wimbledon championship and the U.S. Open, revealed April 8 that he had AIDS in a news conference prompted by his fear that a newspaper was about to publish the story.
He said he was infected by a blood transfusion during heart bypass surgery, probably in 1983.
Though adamant that he should have the right to keep his illness private, he became active in the fight against AIDS, forming a fund-raising foundation and joining the boards of the Harvard AIDS Institute and the UCLA AIDS Institute.
In response to questions from reporters, Dell said Ashe was angry at being forced to reveal his condition. He said the anger passed quickly as Ashe became a crusader against AIDS.
"They didn't hold any bitterness," Dell said of Ashe and his family.
Ashe was credited with helping break racial barriers in professional tennis.
"It was thanks to him that I could have a career in tennis," said Frenchman Yannick Noah, who's black. "It was him who, when I was young, gave me the dream."
Despite all of Ashe's accomplishments in tennis, Dell thinks Ashe was proudest of his December 1992 speech about AIDS before the United Nations General Assembly.
Ashe's wife was with him until he died. She told the couple's daughter, Camera, 6, about her father's death Saturday night.
"They had planned a father-daughter party for Valentine's Day," Dell said. "They had to tell her it was canceled. Camera was remarkably calm but I don't think it's really hit her yet."
After winning a tournament in Japan, tennis star Martina Navratilova offered a prayer for Ashe.
"I ask that we stop for a moment of silence here to remember an extraordinary human being who transcended his sport, his race, religion and nationality and in his own way helped to change the world," Navratilova said. "We will always remember you, Arthur."
Columnist Anne Killion, with Knight-Ridder Newspapers in San Francisco, wrote that the news hit hard at the Bill Graham Civic Center, where the Volvo San Francisco tennis Tournament is being played.
San Francisco was one of the first outposts of awareness. San Francisco, which is setting tragic records for AIDS victims, seemed a sadly fitting place to hear about Ashe.
"San Francisco has been so battered by AIDS, it's kind of poignant to hear the news here," former player Tim Mayotte said.
Mayotte is in San Francisco doing television commentary. He is on the board of directors of the Association of Tennis Professionals, which Ashe helped found. Saturday, Mayotte was wearing a red ribbon - signifying AIDS awareness - on his lapel before the news about Ashe had broken.
Mayotte was wearing it because pro tennis has become an island of AIDS awareness because of Ashe, just as professional basketball is becoming one because of Magic Johnson.
"Every day more and more islands join the chain as the disease spreads through communities that thought they were immune. Maybe Ashe's passing will help to build some bridges," Killion wrote.
Even in a city ravaged by the disease, Ashe's death was shocking. Even to people like Mayotte and tournament director Barry MacKay and tennis star Jimmy Connors - people who had seen Ashe recently and had known of his illness for years - the news came as a shock.
"No matter how much you prepare, you never are really prepared for the final result," Connors said.
Connors is part of Ashe's history. He lost to Ashe in the 1975 Wimbledon final, a match remembered for a clash of generations, a contrast in styles. Though Connors is a different type of man, he always admired Ashe.
"He didn't take it lying down, did he?" Connors said. "He was out doing things, making his point until the end."
\ The Ashe family asked that in lieu of flowers, contributions be sent to the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS, 100 Park Ave., New York, N.Y., 10017.