Charlestown

On Thursday, January 8, 2009, GARNETT M., husband of the late Christine C. Brubaker; beloved father of G. Mark Jr., and Edwin Brubaker; grandfather of Michael Brubaker and Lisa Oursler and three great grandchildren. Memorial service to be held Monday 10 A.M. at Our Lady of Angels (Charlestown) Interment Maryland Veteran Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Charlestown Benevolence Fund, 715 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD 21228.

On July 14, 2007, RAYMOND EDWARD. A funeral service will be held 11AM, Wednesday, July 18, at Our Lady of the Angels Chapel at Charlestown Retirement Community. Interment will be private.

Robert H. McIntire, 84, Navy officer, genealogistRobert H. McIntire, a retired career Naval officer and regional director for a business consulting service, died Saturday of pneumonia at Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville. He was 84.The former Severna Park resident moved to Charlestown in 1990.He was mid-Atlantic regional director for General Business Services from 1963 until 1971.He was a school teacher in Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He worked as a civilian assistant to the industrial manager of the Navy Yard there for nearly a year and was commissioned a Navy officer in 1942.

The pond trail at Charlestown has patches of snow marked with webbed feet, patches of chickweed resolutely green -- and lots of puddles. This March afternoon tells a familiar tale of spring's bumpy transitions: a long moment of blue warmth followed by a gust of frigid wind. It's as if the weather is determined to stir up memories of other Marches, other thoughts streaked with the ironies of spring.Walking, you hear Carolina wrens and mourning doves, but also the wind chimes of those who live in the apartments on the ridge above the pond.

When they met, both thought their lives were over.After all, each had already experienced a great love -- the kind no one has a right to expect more than once in a lifetime. But Mary Barnes and Joe Beran were both luckier and unluckier than most: Each had loved, and been widowed, twice.Back in happier times, when both were living with their spouses in Catonsville's Charlestown Retirement Community, she had noticed him with his wife. She had cancer."When he wheeled her in her wheelchair, I thought, `That must be a nice man,' " Barnes remembered.

Joanne Romatowski exemplified the courage of her husband, a retired Navy captain and submariner, yesterday morning when she reacted to Wall Street's pelting of the day before by fattening her portfolio."

In Catonsville's 16th Precinct, no ordinary excuse will do for missing an election.Not work. Not rain. Not long lines at the polls. And certainly not old age.Virtually all of the 2,500 people here vote religiously -- and all are at least 62 years old. So committed are they that their home, the Charlestown Retirement Community, is a precinct unto itself -- and boasts one of the highest turnout rates in Baltimore County.That makes Charlestown -- like other retirement villages and senior centers across the state -- a can't-be-missed stop for political candidates trying to make their way to the Maryland legislature, Congress or the governor's mansion.

Kathryn W. Harron, retired director of research and special projects for the Bureau of National Affairs, died Aug. 11 of complications of Alzheimer's disease at Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville. She was 91.The former Kathryn White, a native of Washington, D.C., graduated from high school in 1924 and attended Strayer Business College for a year before she began working as an administrative assistant for an attorney. The next year, she got a job writing and editing textbooks.

Anthony J. Barna, 44, worked for NSAAnthony J. Barna, a former Columbia resident who established a computer services company in West Virginia, died Aug. 27 in a hospital in Ranson, W.Va., after he was injured in an automobile accident. He was 44.Mr. Barna, who lived in Columbia from 1989 to 1995 and earlier in Rosedale and in Owings, Calvert County, had worked as a National Security Agency analyst from 1983 to 1995.After leaving the NSA, he moved to Charlestown, W.Va., and founded Charlestown Computer Services.

A city police officer was stripped of his arrest powers and placed on desk duty yesterday after he was charged with hitting his girlfriend in the face Tuesday night in her East Baltimore rowhouse.Officer Ronald Robinson, 38, a six-year veteran assigned to the Northwestern District, was charged in a criminal summons with assault, said Officer Angelique Cook-Hayes, a police spokeswoman.Cook-Hayes said the officer's girlfriend, Sholeabet Hawkins, 28, called police about 8: 30 p.m. to report she had been slapped in the face during an argument.

On August 11, 2009, IRVIN T. THOMPSON of Catonsville, MD, age 85; beloved husband of the late Alma E. Thompson; devoted father of John W. Thompson of Fairfax, VA; loving companion of Margaret E. Smith of Catonsville, MD. Also survived by an extended family and many friends. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, September 12, 2009, at 10 A.M at Our Lady of the Angel Chapel, Charlestown Retirement Community, 711 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Gideons International, Baltimore South Camp, P.O.Box 7483, Baltimore, MD, 21227 or the Charlestown United Protestant Church, 711 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD, 21228.

On June 12, 2009, . Loving wife of the late Charles J. Wilson; devoted mother of Patricia Ann and husband David Hatch, William James Wilson and wife Ethel Himmel; caring grandmother of Ian (Melinda) Wilson, Bonnie (Stan) Toney, Eric Hatch and Heather Wilson; loving step-grandmother of Karen Ohlfest and Erich Himmel; devoted great-grandmother of Joshua Toney, Arianna Toney and Sophia Wilson; caring step-great grandmother of Grace Ohlfest. The family will receive visitors at the Chapel at Charlestown Retirement Community on Saturday, July 25th from 11:00 to 11:30 A.M. A memorial service will be held immediately following at 11:30 A.M. In lieu of flowers, donations are recommended to the Charlestown Protestant Congregation, 711 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD 21228 or to World Vision, PO Box 9716 Dept.

Grabbing a copy of the new Outdoor Life and flipping to the story about the top 200 places in the United States for sportsmen and women to hang their hats, I couldn't wait to see which of Maryland's communities made the magazine's list. The possibilities seemed endless: Deale as jumping-off point for fishing on the Chesapeake Bay; McHenry and nearby Savage River State Forest for deer, turkey and bear hunting and Deep Creek Lake for monster bluegills; Easton as base camp for goose and turkey hunting or white perch fishing in the Miles River; Ocean City for coastal bay and deep sea fishing; Monkton and the Gunpowder River for trout fishing and bow hunting in the surrounding watersheds.

On Thursday, January 8, 2009, GARNETT M., husband of the late Christine C. Brubaker; beloved father of G. Mark Jr., and Edwin Brubaker; grandfather of Michael Brubaker and Lisa Oursler and three great grandchildren. Memorial service to be held Monday 10 A.M. at Our Lady of Angels (Charlestown) Interment Maryland Veteran Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Charlestown Benevolence Fund, 715 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD 21228.

On December 21, 2008, FRANK JOSEPH WOJCICKI, of Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville. Beloved husband of the late Johanna A. Wojcicki; devoted father of the late Fran Bauer and Frank M. Wojcicki; dear brother of Helen Kulnis and the late Walter Wojcicki and Veronica Vachitis. Also survived by Liz Wojcicki and Dr. Valentine Bauer and three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Visitation will be held Saturday, December 27, from 9 to 10 A.M. at Charlestown Community Our Lady of the Angel Chapel in Catonsville.

On Sunday, July 13, 2008, ANNE M. BROWN. Service will be held Saturday, July 19, 11 A.M. at Our Lady of the Angels Church, the Charlestown Retirement Community, 719 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD 21228. Luncheon for family and friends will be held following service.

A bunch of guys loaded the contents of William Donald Schaefer's Pasadena townhouse into a truck the other day while he lunched, unsuspecting, at Petit Louis in Roland Park. The former mayor, governor and comptroller was moving, only he didn't know it. A longtime aide with power of attorney had been pushing for him to move to Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville for a long time. And the famously cantankerous politician had been pushing right back. "I wasn't ready to move," Schaefer, 86, said yesterday, recalling how the aide initially sent movers to his house three weeks ago, not long after a fall at home required a trip to the emergency room and stitches.

Funeral services for Louis F. Drummeter Jr., a retired Naval Research Laboratory scientist, have been scheduled for 11 a.m. April 7 at Our Lady of Angels chapel at Charlestown Retirement Community, 719 Maiden Choice Lane in Catonsville. Family visitation will be from 10:30 a.m. until 11 a.m.

Al Blackburn didn't have an Orioles jersey. In fact, unlike most of the contestants, he didn't wear anything in the O's trademark orange hue. However, he did bring his baseball glove. He has fielded a ball or two at shortstop. And he does have twinkling baby-blue eyes. Oh, and one more thing. "I think I have the Cal Ripken hairdo under control," the 81-year-old joked of his barely-there hairline. "I owe it all to my hairdresser." Blackburn's physical attributes -- and his "spirit," as the judges pointed out -- won him top honors in yesterday's Cal Ripken Jr. Look-Alike Contest at the Charlestown retirement community in Catonsville.

On July 14, 2007, RAYMOND EDWARD. A funeral service will be held 11AM, Wednesday, July 18, at Our Lady of the Angels Chapel at Charlestown Retirement Community. Interment will be private.