29th Division

PIKESVILLE - Lt. Col. John A. Russo recently assumed command of the 3rd Brigade, 29th Infantry Division (Light), Maryland Army National Guard, in change of command ceremonies at the Pikesville Military Reservation. Russo, 46, has served more than 20 years in the Maryland National Guard, most recently as the brigade executive officer of the 58th Troop Command. He is attending the U.S. Army War College. Russo, a Pasadena resident, takes over from Col. Robert L. Finn. Finn, a 53-year-old Westminster resident, served as the 3rd Brigade commander since 2001.

Within 48 hours after the first assault wave hit Normandy on June 6, 1944, Allied forces had secured the beachhead and Hitler's Atlantic Wall began to crumble. But for the soldiers who survived D-Day and for the tens of thousands who who followed them, the battle for Europe had just begun.The 29th Division would not take its key objective in France, the town of St. Lo, until July 18. For the rest of the year, the battle raged across France, into Belgium and the Netherlands and finally into Germany.

William Goldstein, a retired grocery store manager and World War II veteran who landed at Normandy on D-Day, died of renal failure June 13 at Seasons Hospice at Northwest Hospital Center. He was 93. Mr. Goldstein, the son of Russian immigrants, was born in Baltimore and raised on Collington Avenue. He was a City College graduate and had studied accounting at the University of Baltimore. During World War II, Mr. Goldstein enlisted in the Army and served as a quartermaster with the 175th Regiment of the Army's 29th Division.

Maryland's portion of U.S. 29 was renamed the "29th Infantry Division Memorial Highway" yesterday, honoring the only National Guard soldiers to participate in the D-Day invasion."

All-Star Circus New-age and animal-free, the International All-Star Circus will bring its 2006 tour to the National Guard Armory in Dundalk tomorrow, the Fifth Regiment Armory downtown Saturday and the National Guard Armory in Pikesville on Sunday for a live performance for children and adults. World Famous Strong Man Gulliver will dive through spinning swords and the Amazing Simon Arestov will perform a treacherous balancing act. Other featured performers include contortionist Elayne and clown Coco Kramer.

Their legs aren't as sturdy as when they churned across the bloody sand of Omaha Beach on D-Day, with their buddies dying around them under withering German fire, but their fierce patriotism remains undiminished."

Art Calder / Miro, a delightful new exhibit at the Phillips Collection, traces the influence the two artists had on each other from 1920s Paris to 1950s Manhattan, page 12 Family Halloween is coming up sooner than you think, so get into the spirit with a ghost walk, either locally or regionally. Check out our roundup of spooky tours, page 28 Music Brenda Russell, best known for her 1988 smash "Piano in the Dark," is back with her best album in years: Between the Sun and the Moon, page 23 Stage Linda Powell (daughter of Colin)

On November 8, 2009, JOHN L. of South Baltimore and Brooklyn died at age 92. Beloved husband of 67 years to Mary Madeline Baumann (nee Slagle), devoted brother-in-law of Robert and his wife Lynn Plaine, cherished uncle of Dale Bennett, Betty Jane Weibe, Michael and Jimmy DeLauder, Robert M. Plaine and Julie Strain. Also survived by numerous grand-nieces and nephews. Mr. Baumann was preceded in death by his two sisters Mary DeLauder and Catherine Fenzel. John served 4 1/2 years during WW II as a corporal in the 29th Division 110th Field artillery, he participated in the Normandy Invasion, Northern France, Rhineland and Central Europe.

From The Sun June 12-18, 1844June 12: Philadelphia appears determined to excel Baltimore in everything. She has not only forcibly disposed us of the well-earned title of mob town, but seems determined to excel us in the matter of hens and eggs as well.June 13: A new thing is now got up, that of a trunk, which besides holding one's baggage, will float the owner anywhere.From The Sun June 12-18, 1894June 13: Miss Laura V. Corbitt, aged thirty-five years, after reading yesterday morning of the suicide by hanging of Thomas Cook on Monday, went to her room in the third story of her home, 913 West Mulberry Street, and hanged herself from a bed post.

Services for Harriett Rose Kramer, a Baltimore native who danced in vaudeville, were conducted yesterday at the Frampton-Hawkins-Eskow Funeral Home in Federalsburg.Mrs. Kramer, who was 75 and lived in Broadkill Beach, Del., died Tuesday at a hospital in Milford, Del., after a heart attack.The former Harriett Rose Dunaway was a native of Baltimore and attended Western High. As a young woman, she toured vaudeville theaters as part of a two-girl dance act. While on tour she met trumpeter John Kramer, and they settled in the Baltimore area after their marriage.