Obituaries : Hank Osborne; Ex-City Editor of The Times and L.A. Mirror

H. Durant (Hank) Osborne, former city editor of the Los Angeles Times, who held the same position with the old Los Angeles Mirror, died Monday at Loma Linda Veterans Administration Hospital. He was 74 and had suffered a massive stroke at his South Pasadena home Nov. 12 and remained in a coma until his death.

Osborne was city editor of The Times from 1962 to 1965, having moved from the Mirror when The Times’ sister paper ceased publication in 1961. He was the editor in charge of the The Times’ suburban editions when he retired in 1978.

Osborne was a son of the editor and printer of a small weekly in his birthplace of Clinton, N.Y., where he learned to set type by hand as a youth. His first job after leaving college was as a reporter for the Long Island Press and then the Utica (N.Y.) Observer Dispatch before he moved to the old Chicago Daily News.

He served with the Navy in the South Pacific in World War II, was discharged as a lieutenant in 1945 and then became active in the Naval Reserve, retiring as a commander in 1964.

After the war he returned briefly to the Chicago paper, then to the New York Daily News and then to the Sacramento Union as city editor in 1947.

Osborne joined the Mirror as a rewrite reporter in 1949 and rose to assistant city editor and then city editor.

During Osborne’s tenure at The Times he supervised the coverage of the Baldwin Hills dam disaster, the kidnaping of Frank Sinatra Jr. and the death of Marilyn Monroe.

He is survived by his wife, Catherine, a daughter, son, and three grandchildren.

At his request there will be no funeral or memorial service.