Millard

'Millard Sheets: The Early Years (1926-1944)' Where: Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 E. Union St. When: Through May 30. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Price: $7 Contact: (626) 568-3665

The shift in ceramics from craft to art form was a quiet revolution in postwar Southern California. "Common Ground: Ceramics in Southern California 1945-1975" at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona explores that big topic through the influence of one man, Millard Sheets, a painter who taught and was an administrator at Chouinard Art Institute, Otis Art Institute and Scripps College. It was Sheets who brought the legendary avant-gardist Peter Voulkos to California to run the ceramics department at Otis.

For the sixth consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente ranked highest in customer satisfaction for health insurance among California policyholders, according to ratings firm J.D. Power and Associates. Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit health insurer, and Woodland Hills insurer Health Net Inc. scored the lowest on customer satisfaction among seven California health plans. Kaiser, the nation's largest nonprofit health plan and hospital system, also led the way in customer satisfaction in Colorado, the Mid-Atlantic states and the South Atlantic area.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Alice Millard House, known as La Miniatura, is for sale, now on Labor Day markdown in Pasadena from $7,733,000 to $4,995,000. This paper reported last week that broker Crosby Doe has "an international art dealer with Japanese art-collector clients" looking to move the house to a place ominously identified as "elsewhere. " Presumably this elsewhere is nowhere in Los Angeles County. The immediate question is: Could this sale happen? Yes. Money, unchecked, trumps preservation.

Jaren Millard, 62, a hairdresser and makeup artist known for his work with Hollywood actresses, drowned Sunday in a hot tub in Palm Springs, the Riverside County coroner's office confirmed. Millard, who was actress Zsa Zsa Gabor's hairdresser, was the driver and Gabor the passenger in 2002 when her Rolls-Royce convertible jumped a curb on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood and hit a light pole.

Millard Fillmore, whose greatest contribution to history may have been installing a bathtub in the White House, was remembered on the 185th anniversary of his birth Monday with a small graveside ceremony here and with a "Millard Moment" in Baltimore. Thirty persons huddled under cloudy skies as a wreath was placed on his grave. And in Baltimore, Jeff Amdur planned a different remembrance. "I urge everyone to celebrate a Millard Moment," Amdur said.

Oscar Millard, a British novelist who became a successful Hollywood screenwriter, has died of natural causes. He was 82. Millard died Friday at his home in Pacific Palisades after having his normal early-morning swim and eating breakfast, a spokesman for the family said. Born in London, Millard was an established writer in England when he was hired by 20th Century Fox as a contract screenwriter more than 40 years ago.

The richest of the rich in America is worth $2.8 billion, while the poorest of the rich checks in at a mere $150 million. But who's counting? Forbes magazine, that's who, and its 1985 list of the nation's 400 richest people is topped by Sam Moore Walton of Bentonville, Ark., who has made $2.8 billion through his Wal-Mart discount stores. Walton, who danced a hula on Wall Street last year when profit goals were met, replaced Gordon Getty, the front-runner for the past two years.

Minnesota Vikings star Keith Millard pleaded guilty Thursday to careless driving in connection with a January incident in which he was arrested on a drunk driving charge. Hennepin County District Judge Herbert Worlner sentenced Millard, 28, to 48 hours of community service and 12 months probation. He also fined him $625 and ordered him to be evaluated for chemical dependency at the Hazelden treatment center in Center City. Millard was arrested Jan.

Keith Millard lifted his left arm as high as he could, which wasn't very high at all. He uses the arm to do the tricks of his trade--rips and swims and all those other little moves that most spectators at an NFL game never see because they happen in the war zone known as the trenches. "I haven't been able to practice or lift weights for three weeks," Millard said. "All I've done is play in games which, no matter how much it hurts, is something I've got to do."

Buried beneath layers of paint and plaster on a seemingly bare exterior wall at South Pasadena Middle School is a hidden art treasure over three quarters of a century old. Although you'd never know by looking at it, three highly detailed and colorful frescoes by acclaimed California artist Millard Sheets grace a wall of the school's auditorium. Because of a series of blunders, the once-stunning Italian Renaissance-style murals haven't seen the light of day for decades. Today, construction is in full swing at the campus.

'Millard Sheets: The Early Years (1926-1944)' Where: Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 E. Union St. When: Through May 30. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Price: $7 Contact: (626) 568-3665

Millard Kaufman, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of "Bad Day at Black Rock" and the co-creator of Mr. Magoo who waited until he was 90 to become a first-time novelist, has died. He was 92. Kaufman died of heart failure Saturday, two days after his birthday, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his son, Frederick Kaufman.

Millard Fuller, a self-made millionaire who gave away his wealth to start the Christian house-building group Habitat for Humanity, and who started a similar organization after he was fired over disputes with the Habitat board, died Tuesday en route to a hospital in Albany, Ga. He was 74. An autopsy was being performed to determine the cause of death. Fuller had recently been treated for chest congestion and was taking antibiotics, said a spokeswoman for the Fuller Center for Housing.

About your article on the Millard Campground ["Nature to the Urban Rescue, Nov. 30]: Boo! I made it to the plank, with effort, but when I got to the first water crossing, I gave up because the family coming back from the falls said there were more like it ahead. At two weeks away from age 78, I do walk a lot, but the knees are not up to difficult places. Instead, please try the Fish Canyon Falls trail in Duarte-Azusa. Jack Collins Duarte

No one seems to know exactly when Millard Campground was converted from a day-use-only picnic spot near a nice waterfall into L.A.'s most convenient place to snore in the woods. Or, for that matter, if and when it might be converted back.

A great honor has come to me, leaving me breathless with delight and aware of my unworthiness to walk among the distinguished members of the Western States Millard G. Fillmore Appreciation Society. The letter came to me by recent post from Bob Coop, esteemed and quite daft founder of the worldwide organization. He refers to my column about his creation and adds, "We hope you will accept honorary membership in our organization. We would be proud to have you as one of us.

Millard Sheets was an artist, so it's somewhat ironic to wish that an exhibition dedicated to the man focused a little less on his art. There are a handful of gems among the 40-plus watercolors, oils, drawings and prints on view at the Oceanside Museum of Art, but Sheets' most enduring legacy is not confined to the page or canvas. He was a doer -- an energetic, productive teacher, mentor, catalyst and facilitator who played a formative role in numerous Southern California cultural institutions.