OMARR, Sydney 1926-200
(Sidney Kimmelman)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born August 5, 1926, in Philadelphia, PA; died after a heart attack January 2, 2003, in Santa Monica, CA. Astrologer, columnist, broadcaster, editor, journalist, and author. Omarr, who was born Sidney Kimmelman, became an astrologer while still a teenager. As a young American soldier based in Okinawa during World War II, he broadcast "Sydney Omarr's Almanac," a weekly program on Armed Forces Radio through which he predicted the winners of athletic and other sporting events. By the 1960s Omarr was a full-time astrologer and syndicated columnist whose astrology columns appeared in several hundred newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. His columns attracted loyal readers from all walks of life and all levels of society, at least partly because, no matter how grim the forecast, Omarr always found an upbeat way to present it. Though Omarr was eventually blinded and paralyzed by multiple sclerosis, he maintained a rigorous work and writing schedule with the aid of assistants. Every year he published thirteen astrology books, including one volume for each sign of the zodiac. Over the years he also wrote a seemingly random variety of other books, including Henry Miller: His World of Urania, Cooking with Astrology, and Sydney Omarr's Astrology of Love, Sex, and You. He also worked at various times as a news reporter for the United Press, a radio news director and editor, and an editor of astrology magazines, and he was a frequent guest on television talk shows.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Browning, Norma Lee, Omarr: Astrology and the Man, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1977.

Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, 5th edition, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Omarr, Sydney, Answer in the Sky . . . Almost:Confessions of an Astrologer, Hampton Roads Publishing, 1995.

periodicals

Chicago Tribune, January 3, 2003, section 3, p. 11.

Los Angeles Times, January 3, 2003, obituary by Louis Sahagun, p. B10.

New York Times, January 4, 2003, obituary by Douglas Martin, p. A13.

Times (London, England), February 25, 2003.

Washington Post, January 4, 2003, obituary by Louis Sahagun, p. B7.