Jane Wyatt, the lovely, serene actress who for six years on Father Knows Best was one of TV’s favorite moms, has died, her publicist said. She was 96. Wyatt died Friday in her sleep of natural causes at her home in Bel-Air. Wyatt had a successful film career in the 1930s and ’40s, notably as Ronald Colman’s lover in 1937’s Lost Horizon. But it was her years as Robert Young’s TV wife, Margaret Anderson, on Father Knows Best that brought the actress her lasting fame. She appeared in 207 half-hour episodes from 1954 to 1960 and won three Emmys as best actress in a dramatic series in the years 1958 to 1960.
Settlement: Columnist Armstrong Williams has reached a settlement with prosecutors regarding payments he received from the Education Department to promote President Bush’s agenda. He will admit no wrongdoing but will pay $34,000 that prosecutors determined he had been overpaid.
CELEBRITY WATCH
A Malawian man who gave up his 13-month-old son to be adopted by Madonna said Sunday that he had not realized he was signing away custody “for good.” “Our understanding was that they would educate and take care of our son just as they were doing at the orphanage,” Yohane Banda said. . . . British soccer star David Beckham is reportedly set to become knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He may be a “sir” after New Year’s.
