Born In Baltimore

Gilbert R. Funk Sr., a retired Allied Bendix Aerospace manager and World War II combat veteran, died of pneumonia Wednesday at Stella Maris Hospice. The Overlea resident was 86. Born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton, he was a 1939 City College graduate. He earned a diploma at the old Baltimore College of Commerce. He worked for Bendix Corp. throughout his life. During World War II, he served in the Coast Guard aboard the USS Cavalier, an attack transport in the Pacific. He fought at Luzon, Leyte Gulf, Tinian and Saipan.

Joseph Anthony Mirabile, a retired Baltimore City Fire Department captain who fought the Tru-Fit Clothing store blaze in 1955, died of renal failure complications Monday at his Dundalk home. He was 86. Born in Baltimore and raised in Little Italy, he attended St. Leo's parochial and city public schools and later earned a General Education Diploma. He studied marine drawing at the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts and won the school's Peabody Prize in 1956. He joined the Navy in 1939 and served in the Pacific during World War II. Stationed at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was aboard a ship that left the naval base three days before the Japanese attack.

William Herman Koester Jr., a retired executive of his family's baking business who previously worked as a professional actor on stage and in television, died Monday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center of surgical complications from a recent fall. He was 88 and most recently lived in Towson. Born in Baltimore and raised on St. George's Road, he was a 1938 Gilman School graduate. He earned a degree at Dartmouth College and served in the Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Wasp in the Pacific during World War II. He left military service as a lieutenant.

HARRY M. COVER, age 79, died Sunday December 9, 2007 at Peninsula Regional Medical Center. Born in Baltimore , he was the son of the late William W. And Mary Fox Cover. Mr. Cover was a retired Firefighter from Baltimore City with over 20 years service, he was a US Navy veteran, a member of the American legion and Paramedics Association. His hobbies included fishing and hunting. Mr. Cover is survived by his beloved wife Shirley Cover, a son Michael D. Cover and wife Christine of Parkton, Md, a daughter Kimberly Fraser and husband Scott of St. Petersburg, FL, three grandchildren, Matthew Hartman, Blake and Ty Fraser.

George T. Cord Jr., a retired owner of a medical records data processing firm and a licensed charter boat captain, died Tuesday of pneumonia at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 90. Mr. Cord was born in Baltimore and raised on Robb Street. He was a graduate of Baltimore public schools. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces and spent the war years in China as an aircraft mechanic repairing B-29 bombers. After the war, he returned to Baltimore and worked for many years as a salesman for Remington Rand before establishing Microfilm Associates in the 1970s.

Sept. 12 1880 Author and journalist H.L. Mencken was born in Baltimore. 1953 John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, R.I.

Andrew Felix Rekus, a retired Baltimore Gas and Electric chemist, died of a heart attack July 26 at his son's Odenton home. The former Homeland resident was 88. Born in Baltimore and raised on Hollins Street, he was a 1937 Loyola High School graduate who earned a chemistry degree at Loyola College. He worked at Revere Copper and Brass in Southwest Baltimore before serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II. He did research in ordnance at the Dwight Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and received a commendation for his work.

Shar?n Clark, a 45-year-old Prince George's County woman, took top honors at the Billie Holiday Vocal Competition yesterday. Clark, a professional singer who is a receptionist by day, impressed the judges with her rendition of "Secret Love" in the final round. The competition, now part of the Artscape festival, is a celebration of Holiday's life and music. "This is the emotion woman to me," said Clark, when asked what drew her to Holiday's singing. "I think she felt everything she sang.

Bernice R. "Jeanne" Roane, a retired nurse's aide and longtime Northwest Baltimore resident, died of cancer Friday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 63. Bernice Regina Hall was born in Baltimore and raised on Ridgehill Avenue in West Baltimore. She was a 1961 graduate of Douglass High School. During the 1970s and early 1980s, she was a nurse's aide at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In the 1990s, she moved to Trenton, N.J., where she was a nurse's aide in a psychiatric hospital. In 1998, she returned to Baltimore, and from 1999 to 2002 was employed as a sale associate for Burlington Coat Factory at Arundel Mills mall.

Elizabeth A. Hajek, a homemaker and former Violetville resident, died Friday from complications of pneumonia at Summit Park Health and Rehabilitation Center in Catonsville. She was 87. The former Elizabeth Agatha Tribbe was born in Baltimore and raised on Wilkens Avenue. She attended St. Benedict's School until the eighth grade, when she left to work in a nearby book bindery. She was married in 1951 to Charles M. Hajek, a postal worker. He died in 1995. Mrs. Hajek was an enthusiastic duckpin bowler for many years, and she liked going to the movies.