Casket

Raymond G. Thieme Sr., 95, union organizer in 1930sRaymond G. Thieme Sr., a union organizer at a Baltimore casket company in the 1930s, died Friday of heart failure at Locust Lodge Assisted Living Home in Riviera Beach. He was 95.Born in East Baltimore, Mr. Thieme attended a local grammar school before going to work at the old National Casket Co. at Fallsway and Lombard Street.He took up the cause of helping unionize the company during the tumultuous 1930s, a time "when it was a great concern to my mother that dad didn't get his head split open," said his son, Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

To the cyclist who apparently lost his mind and was seen riding on busy York Road in Timonium a couple of Saturdays ago at about 1 in the afternoon:Hi, there. You may not remember me, but I was driving a green Ford Taurus station wagon, which tends to give me the same sexy look as an aging seminarian returning from bingo duty.Anyway, it was about 117 degrees in the shade, but you were in full Tour de France get-up: Spandex unitard, heavy-duty cycling shoes, dark racing gloves, dorky banana-shaped helmet, the whole 9 yards.

For 60 years he shook their hands, kissed their babies and kissed their babies' babies, blessing them one and all. And when they would come to Annapolis to ask for a moment of Louis L. Goldstein's time, he'd lead them over to the State House for a personal tour of history's nooks and crannies, always lingering for a moment at his favorite spot, the old Senate Chamber.Yesterday morning, state troopers carried Goldstein back to the State House for a final time, placing his casket beneath the dome, just a few feet from his favorite spot.

It was the weekend after Easter, and 10-year-old Jennifer Thompson looked like a poster for the season. She wore a flowered dress, the perfect spring dress, and carried a nosegay of daisies. Her blond bangs were combed as straight and perfect as the pickets in a fence.In the tiny Upper Cross Roads Baptist Church in Baldwin, Jen Thompson's girlfriends gathered in their spring dresses, too, to mourn the young girl swept out of their lives when a canoe overturned on a bright, breezy afternoon.

Letters, calls and the roar of the crowd:Gordon Matulonis, Eldersburg: Perhaps you didn't see women pallbearers, but I did.When my father died, my mother made me go to the cemetery every Wednesday. One Wednesday, not far from my dad's burial place, I saw six women pallbearers.After the casket was lowered, the women removed their gray gloves and tossed them onto the casket.By the way this was in 1937.COMMENT: I spoke to Joe Keller of Loring Byers Funeral Directors, whom I met when I gave a speech to an association of Maryland funeral directors a few years ago (and a livelier bunch you will never meet.

LAUREL -- A police investigator uncovered the first evidence yesterday to support allegations of widespread double-selling of burial plots and desecration of caskets in cemeteries around the state.Wearing a dark trench coat, Detective Sgt. Fran Barnes of the Prince George's County police led a morning raid of two graves at soggy Maryland National Memorial Park, along Route 1 here. And in the burial plot belonging to John D. Minick, a Hechinger sales consultant who died in 1987, he found not only Mr. Minick's body but also a second, unidentified person.

One by one, they said their goodbyes with flowers.A tearful Charles Dorsey IV placed yesterday a white rose on his wife's casket and pink roses on his two daughters' caskets. Other relatives and friends followed his lead at the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery until there were five white caskets covered with roses, gladiolas and carnations.Hundreds of people gathered in yesterday's sweltering heat to pay their respects to the woman and four children killed in Thursday's bus stop accident in Woodlawn.

One of the benefits of having a garden is you get to bury things in it. These days, though, it is usually not called burying. It is called composting. But the idea is the same.Items that ordinarily would be thrown in the trash are instead given a "final resting place" in the garden soil. There nature takes over and your deposit soon returns to organic matter. Sometimes. Then again, sometimes not.Take last weekend, for instance. During a serious soil-turning session in the garden, I dug up "Charlie."

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Riverside County health officials hope to decide this week whether to loosen restrictions on the release of the body of Gloria Ramirez, whose death in February is central to the investigation of the still unexplained fumes that felled attendants of a hospital emergency room.The county has said it would release the body for burial if the woman's family agreed not to open the sealed casket. Officials said there still are unanswered questions about whether her body was the source of the fumes that sickened a half-dozen people at Riverside General Hospital's emergency room.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Riverside County health officials hope to decide this week whether to loosen restrictions on the release of the body of Gloria Ramirez, whose death in February is central to the investigation of the still unexplained fumes that felled attendants of a hospital emergency room.The county has said it would release the body for burial if the woman's family agreed not to open the sealed casket. Officials said there still are unanswered questions about whether her body was the source of the fumes that sickened a half-dozen people at Riverside General Hospital's emergency room.

TV coverage of Michael Jackson's death had it all Tuesday: helicopter freeway shots of the funeral procession, an army of breathless anchors to ratchet up anticipation and, last but not least, the singer's gold-plated, flower-draped casket on view for a worldwide audience. Yet through all the pomp, the actual memorial service remained moving and elegant. Talk about a day of TV worthy of the King of Pop spectaculars. Maybe the difference lies in all the new media that have arrived in the last 30 years, but Elvis Presley went out like a peasant in 1977 compared withthe 12-day build-up to Jackson's TV sendoff Tuesday.

Those who knew Anna Tomalis best say the way she went about her life near the end truly captured her spirit. The 13-year-old Clarksville resident, who had been battling a rare form of liver cancer for three years, was struggling physically in recent days. But she resolved to press on with life, managing to go horseback riding and take in a movie. "Anna lived life to the fullest," said her father, Ron Tomalis. "She had every reason to not do something, but she always found ways to overcome her discomfort."

In the silence of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, where a multitude gathered yesterday to mourn a fallen police officer, to view his body and to bid him farewell, an honor guard approached the open casket of Cpl. Courtney G. Brooks and prepared, with unhurried precision, to close it forever. Suddenly and with gathering strength, a wail arose from his survivors, a huddled group of relatives hunched over in grief, holding onto each other as emotion overcame them. "No, Spanky! No!" one woman cried, invoking the nickname they all used for Brooks, a 13-year veteran of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police who was struck by a hit-and-run driver on New Year's Eve. The keening grew as the top of the casket slowly came to rest, as though the family members were trying to prolong the last look they would have of a man they loved.

Some of the images of Baltimore Detective Troy L. Chesley Sr. that flashed on screens above the pulpit made people laugh. In one, he is bare-chested, belly out and wearing white swim trunks. Another shows him as a boy, with a silly grin and eyes as big as grapes. Others shown at his funeral yesterday revealed his serious side. Posing for a portrait as a young police officer, he looked straight into the camera with a stony expression. Later, he stood with chin up, leaning against a patrol car with other members of the Western District.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, joining thousands of Americans who started the new year by saying goodbye to a former president, stopped yesterday at the U.S. Capitol after returning from his Texas ranch to pay his respects to Gerald R. Ford. Wearing a dark suit and gray tie, Bush was joined by first lady Laura Bush and a small contingent of White House aides that included Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. Shortly after 3 p.m., Bush and his wife walked into the rotunda, where Ford's body lay in state.

NEW YORK -- Thousands jammed 125th Street and waited in line for hours yesterday to pay their respects to James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, whose body lay inside Harlem's Apollo Theater. On the stage of the historic building, the Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime friend, stood near the head of the casket, speaking occasionally to people passing by in a slow, deliberate procession. Some took pictures; others simply looked and moved on. Brown's music blared through the air. Later, at an evening program for family and close friends, Sharpton said it was difficult to believe that a man who was "so much alive" was dead.

On July 3, 2006, HARTLEY BONWILL WEER, formerly of Turner White Casket Company and York Casket Company, beloved husband of Eloise J. (nee Jervis); devoted father of Gary J. Weer and his wife Ella and the late Kenneth A. Weer; dear grandfather of Jeffrey, Timothy and Deborah Weer. Visiting at the E.F. Lassahn Funeral Home, P.A., 11750 Belair Road (Kingsville) on Thursday 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 P.M. A Graveside Service will be held at Chester Cemetery (Chestertown, MD) on Friday at 11:30 A.M.

The windows of the tiny Joppatowne church fogged over as the mourners pushed in, past the open casket of the slain Baltimore police officer and around the musician playing Caribbean melodies on steel drums. The mist blocked the dreary scene outside, where a driving rain had failed to deter hundreds of friends and family members from gathering to honor the life of Leslie A. Holliday, a 34-year-old mother of three who was shot to death last week. Her ex-fiance was charged in the killings.

WASHINGTON - In a simple, unvarnished pine casket draped with an American flag, the body of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was carried yesterday to the great marble building that defined his life, and tearful justices, family members and former clerks gathered to say quiet farewells to their longtime leader. "Here, you honored our nation with your service," said Rehnquist's pastor, the Rev. George Evans. "Know you are loved." Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Rehnquist's old friend and former law school classmate, who announced her retirement in June, wept.

Willie Olan Simmons, a retired casket company owner and cemetery manager, died of heart failure Aug. 12 at Northwest Hospital Center. He was 84. Mr. Simmons was born in Lockwood Folly, N.C., and raised in Wilmington, N.C. After serving in the Army in the late 1940s, he moved to Baltimore and became a plasterer and cement finisher. He retired in 1972. He managed Mount Auburn Cemetery in the city's Westport neighborhood for nearly a decade before establishing A Line Casket Co. in the 1800 block of N. Longwood St. in the early 1980s.