Bahr

An 87-year-old woman and her son were killed yesterday when an early-morning fire filled their Highlandtown rowhouse with thick smoke, apparently suffocating them as they tried to escape.The body of Mary Elizabeth Bahr, who spent practically all her adult life in the three-story Formstone rowhouse, was found at the top of a second-floor landing. Her son, Edward John Bahr, 63, was found dead in a first-floor room.Inspector Michael Maybin, a Fire Department spokesman, said the fire is thought to have started on the first floor, possibly in the kitchen, in the home in the 1000 block of S. Bouldin St.He said investigators have not determined a cause but do not consider the fire suspicious.

The two-alarm fire that killed an Elkridge artist and destroyed her split-level home Jan. 12 was caused by furnace exhaust heat that escaped through a faulty joint and then ignited floorboards.W. Faron Taylor, deputy chief fire marshal, said that Florence Riefle Bahr, 88, died of carbon monoxide poisoning, consistent with what apparently was a slow, smoldering fire that eventually became a raging blaze. It took firefighters 50 minutes to control the fire.Taylor said a joint in the furnace's pipe, in the ceiling of the basement, broke some time ago, allowing heat to penetrate the floorboards of the house in the 6000 block of Old Lawyer's Hill Road.

On September 25, 2004, BEVERLY POOLE, age 62. Survived by her husband Walter R. Poole Jr., of 44 years, two children, Frances Bahr and Walter R. Poole, III, seven grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. Beverly was Worthy High Pristis of Alpha #30, White Shrine of Jerusalem and Past Worthy Matron of OES #35. Memorial service will be held October 9, at 11 A. M at Catonsville Baptist Church, 1004 Frederick Road, Catonsville. Interment private at Parkwood Cemetery.

Thanks for your editorial about the lack of wisdom of Governor O'Malley's decision to call a special session of the legislature ("A special mistake," July 26). It has often been stated that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," and this is what the governor appears to have succumbed to. Mr. O'Malley apparently now thinks he is so powerful that he doesn't have to listen to reason and that no matter how far out on a limb he goes, he will always get what he wants.

Suddenly, on January 4, 2004, JOSEPH FRANCIS WHIPP. Beloved husband of Marie M. (nee Bahr); devoted step-father of Ron Becker and wife Dorothy; devoted father of Tina and Kevin Whipp and wife Valerie; brother of Marguerite Kroening; dear grandfather of Kristherlyn, Johnathon, Erica, Tiersa, Ashley and Bunky. Visiting at the Lassahn Funeral Home, Inc., 7401 Belair Road (Overlea), on Wednesday and Thursday, 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Isaac Jogues Church, on Friday at 11 A.M. A Christian Wake Service will be held on Thursday, due notice will be given.

Two people were slightly injured in separate accidents near Taneytown and Sandymount in Carroll County on Monday, one in rain and heavy fog.The first accident occurred about 10:30 a.m. at Francis Scott Key Highway and Keysville Road.State police said Alice May Hoff, 57, of Detour was driving her 1986 Oldsmobile 98 through heavy fog east along Keysville Road and stopped at the stop sign at Route 194.She pulled out to make a left turn onto Route 194, police reported, and then saw the headlights of a 1992 Ford Econoline van southbound on the highway.

A Harford County District Court judge who sentenced an Elkton woman to jail two weeks ago ruled yesterday that the original sentence should stand. On April 8, Judge Mimi R. Cooper sentenced Kerri J. King, 35, to one year in jail for driving on a suspended license in Harford County. King, who has also been charged in a New Year's Eve hit-and-run accident that killed a Maryland Transportation Authority Police officer in Baltimore, was to receive credit for time spent in the Baltimore detention center on the Harford traffic offense.

The Judas Field Howard Bahr Henry Holt and Company / 292 pages / $24 In his first novel, The Black Flower, Howard Bahr wrote artfully of men in battle during the Civil War. Next, in The Year of Jubilo, he focused superbly on the war's immediate aftermath in a small Southern town. Now, in The Judas Field, Bahr steps another 20 years further along in history. But he has not left the war behind, nor have his characters. The result is a brooding meditation on loss, memory and the enduring emotional wreckage of combat.

Two people were slightly injured in separate accidents near Taneytown and Sandymount on Monday, one in rain and heavy fog.The first accident occurred about 10:30 a.m. at Francis Scott Key Highway and Keysville Road.State police said Alice May Hoff, 57, of Detour, was driving her 1986 Oldsmobile 98 through heavy fog east along Keysville Road and stopped at the stop sign at Route 194.She pulled out to make a left turn onto Route 194, police PTC reported, and then saw the headlights of a 1992 Ford Econoline van southbound on the highway.

Stephen Bittner Sr., thought he was having heartburn, a whole week of heartburn, heartburn so severe his wife kept asking, "Are you all right?" while he kept popping Rolaids and aspirin and telling her he was fine.An insurance agent, the 53-year-old man should have known better: He had already lost two brothers to heart disease, and another had undergone bypass surgery. "But I just didn't think it would happen to me," he says. "I thought I was too young."Besides, the pain wasn't constant; he'd take the pills and eventually it would go away -- "except that this one particular day, it didn't go away, and my wife insisted that I go to the hospital," he recalls.