D Day

Marvin A. Geyer, a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture meat inspector who landed on Omaha Beach with the 29th Division on D-Day, died Sunday of heart failure at his Arbutus home. He was 91. Mr. Geyer was born in Baltimore and raised in Morrell Park. After graduation in 1937 from City College, he went to work at the Esskay meatpacking plant in East Baltimore. An accident at the plant severely burned his feet. While cleaning out a tank car transporting lard that had to be heated to be removed, Mr. Geyer jumped down into the car to force out the lard that had settled on the bottom.

Thomas Frederick Rommel Sr., a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. foreman and World War II veteran, died Dec. 14 of Alzheimer's disease at Coastal Hospice at the Lake in Salisbury. The former longtime Hamilton resident was 87. Mr. Rommel was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton. He was a 1941 graduate of Polytechnic Institute. During World War II, he enlisted in the Navy and served aboard ships as a radar man. He served in the Atlantic Theater and participated in the D-Day invasion.

Joseph Lloyd Alsop, who was stationed aboard a Navy minesweeper during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and later participated in the D-Day landing in Normandy, died Nov. 23 of respiratory failure at St. Joseph Medical Center. The longtime Towson resident was 88. Mr. Alsop was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Va., and after high school enlisted in the Navy in 1939. On Dec. 6, 1941, Mr. Alsop's ship, the USS Boggs, an old three-stack World War I-era destroyer that had been converted to a high-speed minesweeper, was steaming into Pearl Harbor after a week at sea towing targets for gunnery practice.

J oseph Lloyd Alsop, who was stationed aboard a Navy minesweeper during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and later participated in the D-Day landing in Normandy, died Nov. 23 of respiratory failure at St. Joseph Medical Center. The longtime Towson resident was 88. Mr. Alsop was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Va., and after high school enlisted in the Navy in 1939. On Dec. 6, 1941, Mr. Alsop's ship, the USS Boggs, an old three-stack World War I-era destroyer that had been converted to a high-speed minesweeper, was steaming into Pearl Harbor after a week at sea towing targets for gunnery practice.

James Daniel Nolan, a retired lawyer and former president of Blue Shield of Maryland who landed at Normandy with the 1st Infantry Division on D-Day, died Wednesday of cancer at Mercy Ridge in Timonium. He was 86. Mr. Nolan, the son of Irish immigrant parents, was born in Baltimore and raised on McKean Avenue and later in Howard Park. "His father was a streetcar motorman for United Railways and Electric Company, and his mother was a housekeeper," said a son, Stephen J. Nolan, a Towson lawyer and a Timonium resident.

Andrew L. "Shad" Crockett, a retired postmaster and a highly decorated World War II infantryman who landed at Normandy on D-Day with the 29th Division, died Wednesday of heart failure at the Edward W. McGready Memorial Hospital in Crisfield. He was 85. Mr. Crockett was born on Tangier Island, the son of a waterman and a homemaker. After graduating from Crisfield High School, he moved to Baltimore and went to work in the Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Fairfield yard building Liberty ships. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army and was sent to England aboard the RMS Queen Mary, where he joined the 115th Regiment of the Army's 29th Division.

Even in 1671, pioneers were astounded by the blue mountains and vast valley in southwestern Virginia. Now the Roanoke Valley, less than a five-hour drive from Baltimore, is a place for visitors to explore the natural beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains and discover both the historical and modern features of Roanoke. Here are five things to see and do: 1 Tour the Taubman. This museum is a work of art - inside and out - and displays early American art, exquisite handbags and contemporary photography.

ELISHA RAY NANCE, 94 Last surviving D-Day 'Bedford Boy' When World War II broke out, the "Bedford Boys" left home to serve. Many of them didn't come home - so many that the community had among the greatest losses per capita on D-Day. Now the last survivor has died. Elisha Ray Nance died Sunday in Bedford, Va., a spokesman for Tharp Funeral Home and Crematory said Monday. Mr. Nance was among 38 National Guardsmen from the close-knit community of Bedford who were in Company A of the 116th Infantry, a spokeswoman at the National D-Day Memorial Foundation said.

Lampooning the prospects of a GM recovery plan was easy for Saturday Night Live writers. In a recent sketch, they simply cast an actor as a company executive and had him hold up a poster detailing the future dates of multibillion-dollar payments. The audience got it - easily. Sadly, there are few signs that GM will produce anything much better when its representatives send their plan to Congress tomorrow and return to plead their case Dec. 9. GM is continuing to bleed cash at a pace of $2 billion a month.