Department Store Chain

Betty Mae Booker, a retired U.S. Defense Department clerk and avid traveler, died Saturday after undergoing open-heart surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 62. Born and raised Betty Mae Cheeks in Baltimore, she was a 1960 graduate of Dunbar High School. She worked as a cashier and sales clerk at John's Bargain Stores and the old E. J. Korvette department store chain, and in medical records at Sinai Hospital before taking a job in 1966 as a statistical clerk at Fort Holabird.

CHICAGO - Sears, Roebuck and Co. said shareholders have until 5 p.m. Thursday to decide whether they'll receive cash or stock under the company's proposed $11 billion takeover by Kmart Holding Corp. Both retailers are to hold shareholder meetings that day to vote on Kmart's acquisition of Sears. Sears shareholders can choose to receive $50 a share, half a Kmart share for each Sears share or a combination of the two. A half-share of Kmart is worth 25 percent more than the $50 offer. The combination of Sears, the largest U.S. department store chain, and Troy, Mich.

Once again, machines have replaced human beings, taking work away from at least 12 humans.But in this case, even the human beings would agree it was a good move.Leedmark, the new $10-million "hypermarket" in Glen Burnie, has gotten a new traffic light at its entrance on New Ordnance Road in Glen Burnie, replacing off-duty police officers who had been directing traffic there since the store's opening last May.When the huge department and grocery store first opened, it attracted such a crowd that Leedmark officials thought the added traffic, on an already congested stretch of road, might be dangerous.

The owner of the Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick announced yesterday that J.C. Penney & Co. Inc. will replace Leggett's as an anchor tenant.The Plano, Texas-based department store chain intends to buy the 20-year lease on the 100,000-square-foot store from Leggett by the end of March and open there by July 31, said Crown American Realty Trust, the mall's owner.The Leggett chain, which was recently sold, has been located at the 729,000-square-foot mall since 1991. The last department store switch at Francis Scott Key occurred three years ago, when Hecht's took over Hess' department store space.

Edmund Mirassou,78, patriarch of one of the country's largest family-owned winemaking operations, died Wednesday in San Jose, Calif.He took over the Mirassou vineyard in 1937 -- a few years after Prohibition ended -- and ran it for 30 years with his brother, Norbert, who died in 1992. Their great-grandfather, Pierre Pellier, started the business in the 1850s after bringing vine cuttings from France.Edmund and Norbert Mirassou pioneered several techniques, including an overhead sprinkling system that made it possible to grow vines in arid Monterey County.

Thomas D. Fingleton, a 43-year-old veteran corporate finance executive, has been named to the No. 2 post at Hecht's, the department store chain's parent, May Department Stores Co., announced yesterday.He succeeds Warren Harris, 62, who is retiring after 18 years with May. The move is effective April 1.Mr. Fingleton, whose new title is chairman, will report to Irwin Zazulia, 49, who continues as president and chief executive officer of Hecht's. In the May department store units, contrary to the practice at most large corporations, the president is the ranking executive, said Jim Abrams, corporate spokesman for St. Louis-based May."

Mary Foster Greenhill, wife of the former president of Stewart & Co. of Baltimore, died Friday at her son's home in Greenwich, Conn., after a lengthy illness. She was 75.A family service is planned for tomorrow at Lake Wood Cemetery Minneapolis, Minn., with a memorial service at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15, at St. Luke's Presbyterian Church in Palos Verdes, Calif.Born in Minneapolis, Mrs. Greenhill was the daughter of the late Robert Owen Foster and Mamie K. Keidel. She graduated from '' Northrup School in Minneapolis and attended the University of Minnesota and University of California at Los Angeles.

After nearly 150 years as a fixture in the local retail market, the Hecht Co. has begun the process of shutting its doors forever. The department store chain, which grew from a Baltimore furniture store started by Samuel Hecht in 1857, began major clearance sales at its stores this week. The sales are designed to clear out the stores so they can be converted to the Macy's nameplate by mid-April. The conversions are part of a plan by Federated Department Stores Inc., which acquired May Department Stores Inc. last year, to create a nationally recognized department store chain.

Caldor, the discount department store that left Reisterstown Road Plaza five years ago because of poor sales, will return to the mall for another try next year, a spokeswoman for the mall's owner said yesterday.Mary Pat Baxter, general counsel for Continental Realty Corp., said Caldor Inc. will replace Ames Department Stores, which informed the mall management this week it plans to close its store at the shopping center as part of the company's reorganization under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy law.Ms.

A successful old-time Pennsylvania department store chain is poised to jump into the Baltimore metropolitan area with at least one and perhaps several stores.Boscov's Department Stores Inc., the nation's largest privately owned department store chain with 28 stores in five states, has discussed entering various shopping centers ringing Interstate 695, according to several sources.But as of yet, Boscov's has not yet committed to any location. The chain also declined to comment on its level of interest in the Baltimore market.