Estate Sales

Long & Foster Cos. reported total sales of $2.8 billion and home sales of $1.9 billion for last month, the best September in the company's 34-year history. Long & Foster's real estate sales have been up consistently in the first nine months of this year, and they are up 24 percent year-to-date over last year's record levels. "Thanks to the lowest mortgage rates in over 40 years, we continue to experience a very strong housing market and what will be, at year end, the best year ever for Long & Foster," said Wes Foster, president of Long & Foster.

Arlette T. Wilson, a classical pianist who later worked in real estate sales, died Aug. 23 in her sleep at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. She was 87. Arlette Tetu was born in Providence, R.I., and raised on Menlo Drive in Baltimore. A child prodigy, she was a 1939 graduate of Peabody Preparatory and Forest Park High School. In 1942, she earned a teaching certificate. Four years later, she was awarded the Peabody Conservatory's artists' diploma. For many years, Mrs. Wilson taught piano privately in her home and at Bryn Mawr School and Camp Asquam in New Hampshire.

Tom Stoner made his fortune owning AM radio stations, where the weekly Top 40 was eagerly anticipated by devoted listeners. Would their favorite artists move up this week? Would that new release make it? "I remember how easy it was to decide who came on the list," recalls the Annapolis businessman and philanthropist, "but how hard it was to decide who went off the list. That was the part of the process that fascinated me. " At the Severn River home of Stoner and his wife, Kitty, "Top 40" takes on a new meaning.

Patricia A. Knepper, a former registered nurse who worked for the past 23 years in real estate sales, died of cancer Wednesday at her Stevensville home. She was 75. Born and raised Patricia Ann Sherrard in Columbus, Ohio, she earned her nursing degree in 1951 from the Mount Carmel School of Nursing there. After working in the emergency room at Mount Carmel Hospital, she held nursing jobs in San Diego and Sturgeon Bay, Wis., before moving to Severna Park in 1974. She was a nurse from 1974 until 1982 at North Arundel Hospital - now Baltimore Washington Medical Center.

Mike Hambrick, the former dark-haired WBAL-TV news anchor with the rapid, machine gun-style delivery, was described as "a hot property in the anchorman business," when he first arrived in Baltimore in 1975. "We had a lot of talent in the newsroom then. People such as Spencer Christian and Sue Simmons and Bucky Gunts. They all went on to New York," said Hambrick in an interview the other day. "It was a Camelot-like time for me. Baltimore was a great place to work and live," said the Mount Pleasant, Texas, native who was a 15-year-old high school student when he first broke into broadcasting as a 75-cents-an- hour disc jockey at a local radio station in his hometown.

These obituaries were provided by area funeral homes. If informationhasn't been published about someone in your family who has passed away, please call Deborah Toich at 761-1732 or 332-6211 or (800) 829-8000, Ext. 6211. You may also fax your information to us at 332-6677.RICHARD A. REINECKE REAL ESTATE SALES, 72Funeral services took place for Pasadena resident Richard A. Reinecke Saturday, March 2, at Kirkley Funeral Home.Mr. Reinecke, 72,died of a heart attack Feb. 27 at North Arundel Hospital.

Elizabeth P. Grove, a musician and homemaker who formerly worked in real estate sales, died of heart failure Friday at Top Gallant, her Cockeysville home. She was 71. Elizabeth Patterson Martien was born in Baltimore and raised in the Hampton section of Baltimore County. She was a 1953 graduate of Roland Park Country School, where she was president of the Athletic Association and played field hockey. She attended Hollins College and the Sorbonne.

Curt A. Honko, a mortgage banker and outdoorsman, died Tuesday of undetermined causes at his Parkton home. He was 38. "We are waiting [for the results of] an autopsy for a cause of death," said his mother, Margaret S. Honko of Waretown, N.J. Mr. Honko was born in South Plainfield, N.J., and was raised in Piscataway, N.J., and Linden, N.J. He was a 1988 graduate of Linden High School and had earned a bachelor's degree in business from Montclair State College in 1992. A Maryland resident since 1993, Mr. Honko had recently taken a job at First Fidelity Mortgage in Annapolis.

Consumers' outlay on renovations rose 7.3% last year U.S. consumers spent 7.3 percent more on home renovations last year as lower mortgage rates pushed real estate sales to new highs, a Harvard University report said. Homeowners laid out a record $130.4 billion on tubs, floor tiles, sinks and the like, compared with $121.5 billion in 2002, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies in Cambridge, Mass. Home sales spur renovations because new owners tend to paint and refurbish their homes to suit their own tastes, said Nicolas Retsinas, the center's director.

Kenneth J. Aiden, a retired social worker who enjoyed woodworking, died of cancer Aug. 3 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The longtime Northeast Baltimore resident was 63. Mr. Aiden, who was blind since birth, was born and raised in New Haven, Conn. He came to Baltimore in 1965 when he took a position as a program analyst with Volunteers in Service to America -- VISTA -- and traveled the nation monitoring federal welfare programs. He earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Maryland in 1971 and became a social worker in 1973 for the state's Department of Human Resources.