Edmondson Village

For Paula Gardner and her 7-year-old daughter, Marisa, it's a question of environment."The environment she's in now is not conducive to learning," says Gardner, 39, a single parent who lives in Edmondson Village in West Baltimore. "She was picking up bad habits. It's not so great in the public school she's in."Marisa attends Mary E. Rodman Elementary School and is one of 500 low-income children who won scholarships yesterday to private and parochial schools of their choice. Her mother, who earns $28,000 a year as a tenant counselor for the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, said the scholarship comes as a blessing.

Dr. Robert M. Phillips, a West Baltimore dentist who a former patient said treated each client with the "passion, concern and respect they deserved," died Fridayof complications after a heart attack while visiting relatives in Newark, N.J.A resident of the Village of Cross Keys, Dr. Phillips, 78, also was a strong advocate for educating low-income residents about proper dental care and having effective services available for them."

EVERY political campaign brings joy or heartache to marginal players -- people who are committed in varying degrees to a candidate's ideas, hopes and dreams.Some give up summers or even years of summers in search of some public good. Others want a taste of inside political power, "access" to decision-makers, a job -- or an edge in some future campaign.On election night, the real workers, those who have labored for years, sense the outcome at least hours ahead of time. Even the casual visitor can feel the quickening pulse of victory or the languid one of defeat.

People planning to drive into or around Baltimore tomorrow should prepare for delays as police close roads and highways for the funeral of Officer Harold J. Carey, who was killed in a collision of police vehicles Friday.The funeral is scheduled to begin at 11: 30 a.m. at Central Church of Christ at 4301 Woodridge Road, just off U.S. 40 in West Baltimore. Police are expected to begin gathering at Edmondson Village Shopping Center at 9 a.m.Police said several lanes of Edmondson Avenue -- U.S. 40, a major route into the city -- will be closed throughout the morning starting about 9 a.m. as thousands of officers gather.

A. Jean White, known simply as "mom" to thousands of youngsters during the nearly 30 years she worked as a cook for city schools, died Saturday after she was struck by a car near her West Baltimore home.Mrs. White, 64, served meals, advice and rules of etiquette at several Baltimore city schools from 1968 to 1995. Her last school was Southwestern High School, relatives said.A small woman, Mrs. White was known for giving a stern arm tug to unruly youngsters just as quickly as she'd give them a peck on the cheek.

A shooting in Edmondson Village yesterday afternoon left a man in his early 20s dead and another man wounded. Police were questioning a possible suspect, a department spokeswoman said.Police did not immediately release the names of the victims. Officers at the scene said they were investigating the incident, which occurred minutes before 3 p.m., as a failed robbery attempt.The dead man was found lying on a sidewalk in the 3800 block of Gelston Drive, a block from Lyndhurst Elementary School.

Half a century ago, when many commuters took streetcars downtown and Howard County was considered the country, Edmondson Village Shopping Center opened to the public.It offered a then-unique experience -- the suburban-style shopping mall, with its acres of free parking.Tomorrow, many residents of nearby communities will gather at the shopping center in West Baltimore to celebrate its 50th birthday in official ceremonies attended by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and other dignitaries."The shopping center has meant so much to the community over the years that we could not let this year pass without marking this anniversary," said Heide Grundmann, a longtime community activist in the nearby Ten Hills neighborhood and central organizer of the event.

The shooting of a Baltimore police officer in Edmondson Village last week was only the final act in a string of armed holdups that included at least three slayings, detectives believe.The evidence, they said yesterday, was a .25-caliber pistol that police found in the home of a Rognel Heights man who they believe was involved in the shooting of Officer Charles D. Carroll.After ballistics tests were performed, detectives said they realized it was the gun that had been used in a series of fatal holdups that took place over five days at the end of last month.

Less than six weeks are left until Baltimore's Sept. 12 Democratic primary, and signs of the impending election are everywhere: stuck in yards, placed in windows, plastered to the sides of buildings.In a city battling declining population, campaign signs even outnumber "For Sale" signs in most neighborhoods.They add splashes of color to a city of dull red brick rowhouses, white marble steps and, in this sizzling summer, parched brown lawns.In the race for mayor, the signs offer a quick visual poll on who's running strong in what neighborhoods: Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke in Edmondson Village and Northwood; City Council President Mary Pat Clarke in Hampden and Highlandtown.

The obituary yesterday for Larry Redd Sr. was inadvertently accompanied by a photo of Aaron Cook, Mr. Redd's friend and best man.A photo of Mr. Redd is at right.The Sun regrets the errors.Larry Redd Sr.Carpenter for hospitalLarry Redd Sr., a carpenter and construction worker, died Thursday at Good Samaritan Hospital of a heart attack. He was 38.He worked most recently as a carpenter at Union Memorial Hospital after working for 11 years for P. Flanigan & Sons Inc., a local contractor.The Baltimore native graduated from Southwestern High School and attended the Baltimore City Community College.

Joan M. Jenifer, a retired accounting and payroll clerk, died Oct. 12 of cancer at the Joseph Richey Hospice. She was 73. Joan Maxine Brown was born and raised in Baltimore. She was a 1954 graduate of St. Francis Academy in East Baltimore and attended what is now Coppin State University for a year. She was married in 1955 to Karl Jenifer, a screen printer, who died in 2000. Mrs. Jenifer, who had lived in the city's Rosemont neighborhood and most recently in Edmondson Village, went to work as an accounting and payroll clerk for Harte Hanks Marketing Co. She retired in 1998.

Maryland and other states now receiving federal housing recovery money are taking the first steps toward stabilizing neighborhoods hurt by home foreclosures, says a report released Thursday by Columbia-based Enterprise Community Partners Inc. Enterprise, a nonprofit affordable-housing investor, analyzed plans by some of the 306 state and local governments that received grants through a $3.92 billion Department of Housing and Urban Development program to...

Elaine A. Talieferro, a retired secretary and active church member, died Nov. 1 at Ridgeway Manor Rehabilitation Center of complications from a stroke. The longtime Edmondson Village resident was 86. Elaine A. Hughes was born in Baltimore and raised in Waverly. After graduating from Dunbar High School in 1940, she attended the old Cortez Peters Business School in Baltimore. In the 1940s, Mrs. Talieferro went to work for the Baltimore local of the Hod Carriers' Union, where she was administrative office manager.

Edmondson Village fire's cause 'not fully discernible' Baltimore fire investigators could not determine the cause of last month's four-alarm fire at the Edmondson Village Shopping Center in West Baltimore because of the amount of damage. The Arson Task Force, made up of the Fire Department's investigation bureau and Baltimore police arson detection squad, has deemed the cause of the fire "not fully discernible," Chief Kevin Cartwright, Baltimore fire spokesman, said yesterday. He said the fire was not considered suspicious.

Thanks to Bob Heaton and other Ten Hills-Hunting Ridge-Academy Heights readers for adding to the popular traditions surrounding the Edmondson Village Shopping Center. Last week, I rattled off a listing of 1950s stores in the center and managed to forget about Edmondson Sporting Goods, where Heaton "dropped a small fortune" on toy locomotives and cars for his model railroad layout. "I was in a syndicate with five other guys, and the 8-foot layout was in my basement. When we reached 16, our interest suddenly switched to automobiles on a scale of 12 inches to the foot.

What is it that has etched the Edmondson Village Shopping Center in our collective memories? Could it have just been the presence of three soda fountains - at the old Arundel, the Tommy Tucker or the Whelan's? A fire damaged a section of the 1947 Edmondson Village Shopping Center this week, but don't count this retailing veteran out. The center has weathered enormous change. I often think back to when taxicabs had speakers and a dispatcher's voice barked over this squawk box, "Need 'em on the Hill."

A four-alarm fire yesterday destroyed one end of Edmondson Village Shopping Center, a historic outdoor strip mall in West Baltimore that was called "the Harborplace of its day." City firefighters battled the blaze for more than three hours. The fire, on the west side of the shopping center in the 4500 block of Edmondson Ave., was reported about 9 a.m. When firefighters arrived, three shops --- Ashley Stewart Woman, Edmondson Beauty & Gifts and Village Hair & Beauty - were engulfed in flames, said Chief Kevin Cartwright of the FireDepartment.

They may have been lured to the community event in West Baltimore yesterday by the promise of free groceries, but the hundreds of people who turned out stayed hours for a message of hope. At the event, called A Better Life, the crush of people received bags filled with frozen meats, canned goods, bread and paper products - in all, about 80,000 pounds of food and other necessities delivered in two tractor-trailer loads to the Westside Skills Center on Edmondson Avenue. The $30,000 worth of groceries were purchased and distributed by members of Kingdom Life Church.

LaVerne Peters Rawlings-Lawal, a college bursar and book lover, died Monday of cancer at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The Edmondson Village resident was 57. Born in Baltimore and raised in Edmondson Village, Mrs. Rawlings-Lawal graduated in 1968 from Western High School and earned a degree in political science from Antioch University. In the late 1970s, she served as business office director of the Homestead Montebello Center at Antioch University. She also played a major role, family members said, in the accreditation process for Sojourner Douglass College as it evolved from what is now Antioch University.

Geneva France, a former boutique sales associate and active church member, died Monday of heart failure at Northwest Hospital Center. The longtime Edmondson Village resident was 87. She was born in Staunton, Va., and moved with her family to a home near Druid Hill Avenue in West Baltimore. She was a 1938 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School. Mrs. France worked for more than 20 years with her sister, Pauline Brooks-Amis, who owned Pauline Brooks Boutique in the Belvedere Hotel. She retired in the late 1980s.