Extended Family

Long before integration, No Child Left Behind legislation and the discussion of achievement gaps, Natalie Woodson learned the importance of educating African-Americans. At age 8, Woodson, who is now the education chair for the Maryland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, attended her first NAACP meeting with her grandmother. The agenda item? Woodson's cousin Donald Gaines Murray, who was in the midst of a civil rights battle led by his lawyer - Thurgood Marshall - over admission to the University of Maryland School of Law. Bigotry, raising a family, losing a husband, retirement from a career as an educator, and now her greatest challenge - battling a terminal illness - have not slowed the 79-year-old advocate, who accepted her current position in 1989.

Benetta Thomas-Jones still remembers the day she first realized the importance of keeping her family's history alive. "My daughter was home in the summer 2006 from North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C., and I was talking about Aunt Pat and Aunt Bobbie," recalls Thomas-Jones of the conversation with her daughter Janay. "She looked at me and said, `I don't know who those people are.' She did not know my family." That mother-daughter chat motivated the 47-year-old personnel security specialist at Fort Meade to take on the challenging task of planning her family's summer reunion in Baltimore.

On Sunday, February 4, 2007, BILL HOWARD OZBORN, husband of Patricia Ozborn, father of Michelle Trollope, father-in- law of Tony Trollope, grandfather of Dylan, Winston and Ethan Trollope of San Antonio, brother of Diane Holman, nephew of Norma Martin and Billie Rogers of Ft. Worth. Also survived by numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, extended family and friends. A Memorial Service will be held at St. Marks Lutheran Church, 1900 St. Paul St. on Sunday, February 25th at 4pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Baltimore Opera Company, 110 W. Mt. Royal Ave., Baltimore, MD 21201.

LIFE'S PRETTY SIMPLE if you'd just relax," advises Martin "Grandpa" Vanderhof in "You Can't Take it With You," a three-act play being performed at Francis Scott Key High School this weekend.And Grandpa should know. Years earlier, he had walked away from a serious job to pursue the enjoyment of each moment in every day. He never looked back.The relaxed attitude of Grandpa, played by Doug Wilder, sets the mood for the humorous play, written in 1938 by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman. Nothing bothers Grandpa -- not the Internal Revenue Service pressuring him for years' worth of unpaid taxes, not the chaos of the extended family that lives with him, not a trip to jail.

MAYBE NOW they begin to stop the bleeding around Patterson Park. Who can tell? Maybe now the energy returns to Eastern Avenue, and the neighborhood shops begin to show life again, and maybe now Southeast Baltimore returns to the old days, when finally moving out of your parents' house meant finding an available rowhouse on the same block, instead of a townhouse in distant suburbia.The Abell Foundation thinks it can begin to make some of these things happen. Maybe they're right. Maybe they can undo a quarter-century of political neglect and murderous housing policies that transformed one of the city's most stable communities into one with all of its vulnerabilities showing.

School 33's current studio artists' biennial isn't as good as some of its predecessors in the series. Among its nine artists, none especially stands out, and so the show fails to make a strong impression.But it's a testament to one of this institution's valuable programs.School 33 Art Center mounts about 20 shows a year in its three separate exhibit spaces, making it one of the busiest and most vital art venues on the scene.It does much more than organize shows, though. This city-operated agency in a former South Baltimore school building also runs art classes.

Next to a huge, round bowl of pasta salad, steaming ears of corn are cooling on a long, wooden picnic table. There are platters of hamburgers and hot dogs and chicken and greens and a great big sheet cake, too. Sodas and fruit drinks in huge Thermoses stand ready to quench parched throats.If they had come just for the food, the hundred or so folks who have trekked to Druid Hill Park this cool August afternoon would say the trip was worth it. But it's not the tempting spread that has drawn members of the Brittingham, Sneed and Moye clans here.

Quietly, unassumingly, Riley Hawkins has tried to change the world with karate -- one child at a time. And if you ask some of the 7,000 or so people he has taught, it's working.It started with a few city youths in 1965 and a vision of creating a community. Now, 32 years later, the 53-year-old black belt has not just a community, but an extended family -- a large one because many never left once they experienced Hawkins' distinctive brand of instruction.First, he grabbed the children's attention with Shorin-Ryu, a style of karate that emphasizes hand techniques.

Robert B. Hill doesn't deny that almost half of black American families are headed by single women, or that most of those women's children live in poverty, or that those facts are cause for concern.But Hill says black families -- including many low-income ones headed by single women -- often have strengths that are seldom noticed: a solid work ethic; high aspirations for their children; broad kinship support networks, and a strong religious foundation."I'm not advocating the single-parent household.

To: Members of my familyFrom: The man of the houseRe: Father's Day giftsDear folks,As you can see by the kitchen calendar and the date encircled a number of times in red Magic Marker, Father's Day is nearly upon us.This year, if it's all the same to you, I would prefer not to be remembered in ways that include green ties embroidered with little yellow ducks, barbecue aprons that advertise "Please Kiss the Cook!" or Greek fisherman's caps.As you know, I am neither of Greek extraction nor a fisherman.

Family, fans: These are few of celebs' favorite things Even with wealth and fame, celebrities still take stock of their blessings. The Associated Press has gathered some together: * Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers: "I think we want to be, most of all, thankful for the fans. This year, they've been always sticking around for us, always been there for us. ... And we can't thank them enough." * Singer Barry Manilow: "Health. It's all about health. My health. My loved ones' health. We're all here.

After reading a second Susan Reimer column denigrating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, I just had to write ("Hard to choose sides in the Mommy Wars," Sept. 8). Ever since the introduction of Mrs. Palin as Sen. John McCain's running mate, it has become painfully obvious to me that Ms. Reimer and many other liberal women in the media really aren't for women's rights unless the woman in question is a liberal women. What they don't understand is what people see in Mrs. Palin - a real person, a woman who is obviously intelligent and accomplished and freely admits she is able to do all she does with the help of her husband and extended family.

No matter what profession you choose in life, if you like your job, at some point your co-workers start to feel less like the people whose desks abut yours and more like a part of your extended family. You share countless lunches, they get invited to your wedding, and they stand in your kitchen with a smile, a drink in hand, the first time you celebrate the fact that you scraped together enough money to buy your first house. The Sun lost a member of its extended family last weekend, and though he was probably just a byline to many of you who follow the sports section, Christian Ewell will be remembered by many of us as one of the most genuine, kind, loyal and fun individuals most of us ever had the privilege to call a friend.

Benetta Thomas-Jones still remembers the day she first realized the importance of keeping her family's history alive. "My daughter was home in the summer 2006 from North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C., and I was talking about Aunt Pat and Aunt Bobbie," recalls Thomas-Jones of the conversation with her daughter Janay. "She looked at me and said, `I don't know who those people are.' She did not know my family." That mother-daughter chat motivated the 47-year-old personnel security specialist at Fort Meade to take on the challenging task of planning her family's summer reunion in Baltimore.

Long before integration, No Child Left Behind legislation and the discussion of achievement gaps, Natalie Woodson learned the importance of educating African-Americans. At age 8, Woodson, who is now the education chair for the Maryland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, attended her first NAACP meeting with her grandmother. The agenda item? Woodson's cousin Donald Gaines Murray, who was in the midst of a civil rights battle led by his lawyer - Thurgood Marshall - over admission to the University of Maryland School of Law. Bigotry, raising a family, losing a husband, retirement from a career as an educator, and now her greatest challenge - battling a terminal illness - have not slowed the 79-year-old advocate, who accepted her current position in 1989.

Six died that day. Another life was lost last week. And early yesterday morning, just hours before her father, her two young sons and her nephew were finally laid to rest after a rousing church service, Deneen Thomas died in her hospital bed. Now it is eight. Eight dead in one of the worst fires in Baltimore. In minutes, the May 22 blaze ripped through the East Baltimore rowhouse at 1903 Cecil Ave., where at least 13 people lived - part of a large extended family that included four generations.

On Sunday, February 4, 2007, BILL HOWARD OZBORN, husband of Patricia Ozborn, father of Michelle Trollope, father-in- law of Tony Trollope, grandfather of Dylan, Winston and Ethan Trollope of San Antonio, brother of Diane Holman, nephew of Norma Martin and Billie Rogers of Ft. Worth. Also survived by numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, extended family and friends. A Memorial Service will be held at St. Marks Lutheran Church, 1900 St. Paul St. on Sunday, February 25th at 4pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Baltimore Opera Company, 110 W. Mt. Royal Ave., Baltimore, MD 21201.

On January 25, 2007, EULA. She is survived by her extended family, Cecelia Tilghman, William I. Chatman, III and Marjorie Banks, three godsons, one god-daughter, a host of other relatives and friends. Friends may call at the CHATMAN-HARRIS FUNERAL HOME, 5240 Reisterstown Road, Thursday 12-8PM. Family will receive friends at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 1500 Druid Hill Ave., Friday 10AM. Mass will begin 10:30AM. Interment Baltimore National Cemetery.

LOS ANGELES -- Lackluster bidding for Tribune Co. has sparked a debate within the Los Angeles Times' founding family about whether to launch its own bid for the company, a family member said yesterday. If Tribune ultimately is going to be sold in pieces, some members of the Chandler family reason that if there is money to be made doing that they might as well be the ones to make it, the family member said. Others believe in restoring the Times to family control, but the clan remains divided on how to proceed, said the family member, who asked not to be named because the Chandlers have not been commenting on the continuing auction of Tribune.

Suha Ballout is haunted by the images she sees on television and the ones her family can only describe from thousands of miles away: accounts of bombing victims in Lebanon lying amid rubble. And by the voices of her loved ones over the phone, describing the deafening roar of Israeli warplanes dropping bombs in Beirut's southern suburbs, forcing thousands to flee their homes. If only she were there, Ballout says, she would be working in a hospital, saving lives of her countrymen caught in the fighting between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.