Rushton Skakel Sr.,

79, brother of Ethel Kennedy and head of Great Lakes Carbon, a family business that was once one of the largest private companies in the country, died Thursday. Mr. Skakel, whose son, Michael, was convicted in June of a 1975 murder, died in Hobe Sound, Fla., after a long battle with a brain illness, his lawyer, Emanuel Margolis, said.

Princess Fadia,

59, the daughter of Egypt's last monarch, King Farouk, died in Switzerland Dec. 28 of natural causes, according to Swiss medical records.

Princess Fadia was born in 1943 and left Egypt nine years later along with her two older sisters when their father was ousted. She spent most of the rest of her life in Switzerland.