Decorating

With its commanding view of roof tops and tree tops stretching endlessly north, Legend Hill in Timonium is similar to most previous show houses in that it is old and stately. Legend Hill, off Timonium Road, is named for legendary Baltimore quarterback Johnny Unitas, who owned the house from 1971 to 1987. "That's what women come to see," Carolyn Stadfeld, design chair for the Baltimore Symphony Associates, which produces the annual fundraiser, said. And they come in droves, more than 8,000 people, unstymied by age or infirmity. Some people come in wheelchairs and walkers with their daughters and granddaughters to help them through, Stadfeld said.

In conjunction with the city's big War of 1812 Bicentennial Celebration May 3 to 5, Havre de Grace Main Street Inc. is sponsoring a storefront window display contest. Downtown business owners and owners of vacant storefronts are being urged to enter the contest, which carries $500 in total prizes. The theme is the commemoration of the attack on Havre de Grace by the marauding British, which occurred on May 3, 1813. Theme and period windows should be up no later than May 2 at 5 p.m., according to the Havre de Grace Main Street website, and extra points will be given for period dress of any contestant's staff.

Robert P. Slaff, a former marine-supply vendor and journalist who wrote widely on Chesapeake Bay maritime and environmental matters, died March 8 of congestive heart failure at Crofton Care and Rehabilitation Center. The Epping Forest resident was 89. The son of a newspaper distributor and a homemaker, Robert Paul Slaff was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and raised in Kingston, Pa., near Wilkes-Barre. After graduating in 1940 from Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School in Kingston, Mr. Slaff began studies at the University of Michigan, where he also was a member of the Navy ROTC.

Judge Elsbeth Levy Bothe, a well-known former criminal defense attorney who served on the Baltimore Circuit Court for nearly two decades and had a taste for the macabre, died Wednesday at her Homeland residence of complications from a stroke she had suffered three weeks earlier. Judge Bothe was 85. "Elsbeth was always there for justice. She was fair, just, but could be very tough," said Ellen A. Callegary, who clerked for Judge Bothe in 1976 and was a founding partner of the Baltimore law firm of Callegary & Steedman.

The 13th Floor is a treat. When we came here on a Friday night, people were dancing to live jazz music. Can you imagine? One couple, it was announced, had become engaged. You might, too. The renovated interior, which was unveiled last fall, is a real sweetheart. Dominated by deep reds and lustrous whites, it has the shimmery allure of a red velvet cake or a Faberge egg. The views of the city from high atop the Belvedere were always a reason for visiting, But, pre-renovation, there wasn't much reason to come back, unless you were following one of the bands that played there.

Charles H. Latrobe III, a retired Koppers Co. executive who was a highly decorated World War II Navy night fighter pilot, died Feb. 16 of complications from pneumonia at Roland Park Place. He was 90. "He was a very private person who had the highest level of integrity possible and was intolerant of those who did not," said Joseph M. Coale III, a political adviser, Baltimore County preservationist and former head of Historic Annapolis. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Charles Hazlehurst Latrobe III was 3 when he moved to a home on Ridgewood Road in Roland Park with his family in 1926.

Members of the Country Garden Club of Harford County decorated Hays House for the holidays.

John Morgan "Nemo" Robinson, a retired operator of a Chesapeake Bay summer resort and decorated World War II veteran, died Saturday of a heart attack at Anne Arundel Medical Center after undergoing brain surgery a week earlier. The Severna Park resident was 90. Born and raised in Catonsville, he was a 1938 graduate of Catonsville High School and spent another year at Polytechnic Institute. He gained the nickname Nemo as a child because he had long blond curls like a lion in the "Little Nemo" comic strip.

Raymond Griffith Sinclair Jr., a retired Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. executive who was a decorated World War II Marine, died Monday of congestive heart failure at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 92. Born and raised in Collingswood, N.J., Mr. Sinclair was a 1938 graduate of the Pennington School in Pennington, N.J. Mr. Sinclair interrupted his college studies at Washington College to enlist in 1942 in the Marine Corps. After being commissioned a second lieutenant in 1944, he joined the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific.

J. Dennis Carper, a Baltimore County marina owner and yacht builder who was a decorated World War II veteran, died of stroke and dementia complications Dec. 25 at his Essex home. He was 91. Born near New Castle, Va., he worked on the family farm at Meadow Creek outside Roanoke. While at a church function, he met Gertrude Esther Hanks, a girl from nearby Covington who was a minister's daughter. They married in 1942. The couple lived in Virginia while he attended a school for aircraft mechanics.