Malawian boy’s father raises doubts on adoption

Blantyre, Malawi – A Malawian man who gave up his 13-month-old son to be adopted by Madonna said Sunday he had not realized he was signing away custody “for good.”

Yohane Banda signed adoption papers earlier this month, clearing the way for a Malawian judge to grant the pop singer and her husband a temporary order to take his son David.

“Our understanding was that they would educate and take care of our son just as they were doing at the orphanage,” the 32-year-old illiterate peasant farmer said in a telephone interview from Lipunga, the village where he ekes out a living growing onions and tomatoes.

Until now, Banda has said that his decision was in the best interests of his motherless son and criticized local charities who have started legal proceedings to challenge the adoption.

Banda said his understanding was that “when David grows up he will return back home to his village.” He said that the director of Child Welfare Services, Penston Kilembe, and the retired pastor who heads the orphanage where David spent most of his life never told him by “adoption” it meant David would cease to be his son.

“If we were told that she wants to take the baby as her own we could not have consented, because I see no reason why I should give away my son,” he said.

Banda said he was illiterate and so had no idea of the significance of the adoption papers he signed in the High Court in the capital, Lilongwe.

Actress Jane Wyatt of ‘Father Knows Best’ dies

Los Angeles – Jane Wyatt, the lovely, serene actress who for six years on “Father Knows Best” was one of TV’s favorite moms, has died. She was 96.

Wyatt died Friday in her sleep of natural causes at her Bel-Air home, according to publicist Meg McDonald.

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. The show began as a radio sitcom in 1949; it moved to television in 1954.

Williams notebook found to have been stolen

Nashville, Tenn. – A music publishing company says a 59-year-old notebook that once belonged to the late country singer Hank Williams and is now in the hands of two collectors had been stolen from its offices.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing officials say they learned it was missing only after a Chicago Sun-Times article detailed how the collectors acquired the notebook, which contains lyrics to several unpublished Williams songs and has a value as high as $250,000.

The company filed a stolen property report with police on Sept. 20.

Stephen Shutts and Robert Reynolds said they acquired the notebook this past summer after being contacted by an older Nashville-area woman last November.

The two men run the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame, a traveling exhibit that includes among its 1,750 items a pair of Elvis’ white underwear, circa 1970.

Neither man is suspected of any role in a possible theft, though it’s unclear if they might face penalties for possession of stolen property. The notebook remains in their possession.