Evening Sun

Today marks a new era in the history of The Evening Sun -- an era in which the newspaper will cover the metropolitan counties more thoroughly than ever before. You and your neighbors in Carroll and Howard counties now receive a Sun tailor-made for you; in Baltimore City, Baltimore and Harford counties, localized editions are to be published beginning next year.Why the focus on local news? Because while we know readers depend on us for state, national and world news, we realize that they care just as much about what is happening in their hometowns.

Jim De Graci, a newspaper reporter and editor who worked for The Evening Sun in the early 1970s, died of cancer Wednesday at his home in North Lauderdale, Fla. He was 54. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Mr. De Graci moved to Baltimore after high school with his mother, a seamstress, in the 1960s. They lived a few blocks from Memorial Stadium, and Mr. De Graci became a dedicated Orioles fan, said his wife of 18 years, the former Judith Rader. Years later, after moving to Florida, he continued to follow the team, attending Orioles spring training in Fort Lauderdale as recently as this year with his mother.

Frederick A. Judd, a longtime Evening Sun copy editor who had a love affair with submarines since his days as a sailor on the USS Bowfin during World War II, died Dec. 13 of lung cancer in Florida.Before his death, Mr. Judd, who was 67, began making arrangements to have his cremated remains buried at sea by being shot through the torpedo tube of a submarine."He can join his brothers at the bottom of the ocean. That's what he always said," noted his son, Fred Judd Jr. of Littlestown, Pa.Petty Officer Demonica Porter-Musch, a spokeswoman for the Atlantic submarine force at the Norfolk (Va.)

Mary Helen "Bebe" Cadwalader, a former Evening Sun and Life magazine journalist who, after her professional career, became a prolific free-lancer and wrote on a variety of subjects, died Thursday of a heart attack at her Harford County home. She was 85. Since 1963, Miss Cadwalader had lived at The Mound, her 140-acre farm in Joppa near the Gunpowder River, which dates from the 18th century. She grew grains, managed a herd of Hereford beef cattle, boarded horses, hunted foxes and, in her spare moments, relaxed with the typewriter.

John Edward "Red" Sears, former Evening Sun executive sports editor and music fan, died of a stroke Sunday at Good Samaritan Hospital. The longtime Lauraville resident was 70. Mr. Sears was born and raised in Springfield, Mass., where his father was a detective sergeant with the Police Department. He was a 1954 graduate of Cathedral High School and began his newspaper career the next year working in the circulation department of The Springfield Daily News. "He was always hanging around the sports department and then a reporter died and another got sick, and they told Red they needed somebody and would show him how to write," said his wife of 45 years, the former Jeanne M. Connelly, who was working in public relations in Springfield for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., when she became acquainted with her future husband.

Dear Readers,Yesterday, I announced that The Baltimore Sun will launch a completely redesigned morning paper on September 18,1995, featuring expanded and in-depth news coverage better organized for our readers. I also announced that we would cease publication of The Evening Sun on September 15,1995, so that we could reinvest our efforts and resources in the expanded morning paper.I'm sure you've heard this news through the Baltimore media, but as CEO and Publisher of The Baltimore Sun I wanted to also share my thoughts with you directly.

William B. "Bill" Talbott, a legendary, bow-tied police reporter for The Evening Sun who was often waiting at crime scenes when police showed up, died of a heart attack Friday night while working at his farm in Upperco. He was 70.Mr. Talbott was found in a barn by his wife, the former Diane E. Denis, whom he married in 1986. He was pronounced dead at Carroll County General Hospital.Mr. Talbott worked at The Evening Sun from 1947 until it closed in September 1995. He then worked at The Sun until he retired in early 1996.

How do you say goodbye to a newspaper, the one where you worked for 30 years?Well, it's not easy. It's like saying goodbye to a member of your family who has stood beside you, sometimes frustrated you, but whom you loved all the same. Someone, something that was a part of your daily life for so long.It was, in reality, a job. Yet a newspaper speaks to the world every day, and those who work there help it to talk. Unlike some large companies, a newspaper can be the voice and soul of its city.