DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997              TAG: 9703290392

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   59 lines

CALIFORNIA CULT LEADER HAS VIRGINIA TIES HE STUDIED BRIEFLY AT RICHMOND'S UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN 1952.

The leader of a cult whose members committed suicide in San Diego this week studied briefly at the Union Theological Seminary.

Marshall Herff Applewhite entered the seminary in fall 1952.

``He was here less than a year and withdrew in the spring and went into church music,'' said William H. Todd Jr., vice president for institutional advancement.

The seminary's alumni directory shows Applewhite was born May 17, 1931, in Spur, Texas, and received a bachelor of arts degree in 1952 from Austin College in Texas. It said he became director of music at First Presbyterian Church in Gastonia, N.C., in 1953 and served in the U.S. Army when he left that job. The directory listed Applewhite's wife as Anne F. Pearce.

A North Richmond resident who rented an apartment to Applewhite and his wife remembered him as ``really gifted.

``He had a wonderful voice. He went to the Mosque (now the Landmark Theatre) to hear artists who came here,'' the resident, who did not want his name published, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Applewhite left Union Seminary in 1953 and became music director and assistant to the pastor at First Church in Gastonia.

The church's history says Applewhite left there in mid-1955, said Gary Fulton, associate pastor of administration.

There is no one on the seminary staff or working at First Church who knew Applewhite.

Edith Warren of Gastonia, a member of the First Church adult choir when Applewhite was music director, however, recalled a young man who was ``personable, very intelligent and very talented. I really enjoyed working with him.''

Warren, who described herself as a close friend of Applewhite and his wife, Ann, at the time, said the couple lived in a rented apartment during the two years they were in Gastonia. She said the couple gave birth to a boy while they lived in the town.

``He was quite a musician and had a beautiful voice,'' she said.

Linda Starnes, who attended the church with her fiance, remembered Applewhite as ``drop-dead handsome,'' a man who, ``when he got up to sing, looked and sounded like an angel.''

``One thing I remembered about him all these years was his eyes and his smile,'' Starnes said. ``I can see how he would have mesmerized people.'' MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and

Knight-Ridder News Service. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by ASSOCIATED PRESS

Marshall Applewhite, right, went into church music for a career

following a brief stint at the Union Theological Seminary in

Richmond. Here, he directs the Festival Chorus, a civic choral

group, in Houston in 1969. KEYWORDS: MASS SUICIDE CULT

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