Ashe, Lucid Until Final Hours, Worried About Attorney General

NEW YORK — 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 friend of 25 years, and 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.”

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 last Tuesday.

“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.”

Funeral services are scheduled for Wednesday at Richmond, Va. There will be a memorial service Friday in New York. In lieu of flowers, Ashe’s family asked that contributions be sent to the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS, Inc., in New York.