Gene

On December 13, 2007, FRANCES JOAN (nee Ridgley); beloved wife of the late Herbert E. Muenze "Gene"; loving mother of Paul E. Muenze, Sr.; cherished grandmother of Chelsea A. Muenze, Kennedy A. Muenze, Carly-Gene B. Muenze and Paul E. Muenze, Jr.; dear great-grandmother of Demarco T. Stewart; loving sister of Guyann Peterson and Virginia Kirts. A Funeral Service will be held at the family owned Duda-Ruck Funeral Home of Dundalk, Inc., 7922 Wise Avenue, Tuesday, 10 a.m. Interment Sacred Heart of Jesus Cemetery.

On July 9, 2007, D. GENE WILLE, 75, of The Villages, FL. Born October 20, 1931 in Baltimore, MD. He was a graduate of Penn State University, followed with his MBA at American University. Gene lived most of his life in Maryland. He retired from the National Security Agency as a cryptology group manager. He served his country and was a proud reservist retired Captain for the US Navy and continued as a Captain in the Reserve until his death. He is survived by his wife Joan, sons, Bob, Jim, daughter, Cindy, 4 grandchildren, and a brother Carroll.

Gene Ward Meekins Sr., a retired salesman and collector of military memorabilia, died of cancer Thursday at his Catonsville home. He was 81. Mr. Meekins was born in Baltimore and raised on Elm Ridge Road in Arbutus. After graduating from City College in 1944, he enlisted in the Navy. He served as a boatswain aboard the destroyer USS Duffy and participated in the Leyte Gulf, Mille and Maloelap Atoll campaigns. After the war, Mr. Meekins became a furniture salesman for Shaivitz. In 1970, he joined the old Hutzler's department store, where he worked in the rug department at Westview Shopping Center and later in Towson.

On June 28, 2007, GENE A. SHEPPARD; beloved husband of Leah Sheppard (nee Ashley); loving father of Scott Sheppard and his wife Marcia, Kelly and her husband Mike Foster, and Stephanie and her husband Matthew Livelsberger; cherished stepfather of six stepchildren, treasured grandfather of 15 grandchildren; dear brother of Walt Sheppard and his wife Pat and Jheri and her husband David Wilson. Relatives and friends may call at the family owned AMBROSE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 1328 Sulphur Spring Road, Arbutus on Monday from 6 to 8 P.M. and Tuesday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at the Church of the Ascension, 4603 Poplar Avenue, Halethorpe, on Thursday at the funeral hour of 11 A.M. Interment to follow at the Baltimore National Cemetery.

MIAMI -- Would you want to know you had a gene that was a biological time bomb, that would allow you to live a normal life until sometime between age 35 and 50, when your body and brain would begin to deteriorate?That is the question facing people with a history of Huntington's disease in their families.James Gusella, the Harvard University researcher who made the genetic discoveries that led to a test for Huntington's, said many people don't want to know because there is no cure.Those who do find out have a seven-fold increase in suicides.

In a major test of how learning works at the level of nerve cells, a scientist has created a smarter strain of mice by manipulating a gene involved in memory formation.He believes his work lays the basis for eventually doing the same in people, whether in helping patients with memory deficits, counteracting the loss of memory in older people, and even in making healthy individuals smarter.Other experts, while praising the technical quality of the work, see its first application as lying in treating patients with memory deficits rather than in enhancing intelligence.

Celera Genomics Group, the Rockville unit of PE Corp. that hopes to create the first complete database of the human genome, said yesterday that it has signed a three-year gene-discovery contract with French pharmaceutical giant Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, a subsidiary of Rhone-Poulenc SA.Under the agreement, Celera will use its technology to study disease models provided by Rhone to identify which genes are associated with a particular disease. For example, Rhone might provide diseased animals to Celera, which in turn would use its technologies to compare them with normal animals to identify which genes have changed.

Warren Leight's compelling 1999 Tony Award-winning play "Side Man" is about the family of a jazz trumpet player, a man as closely attuned to his music as he is out of tune with everything else in his life.At Washington's Kennedy Center -- where the Broadway cast has taken up residence for most of this month -- Michael O'Keefe portrays the musician, whom the playwright calls Gene, in an almost perpetual daze. His hair is thinning, his middle thickening and his posture slightly stooped. But his eyes are the key to his character.

When you know the answers to these questions, go to http://www.4Kids.org/detectives/Define this fundamental term in genetics: clone.How many pictures are in Pappy's Hall of Frames?Which legendary Irish queen avoided drowning in the flood? (Go to www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ to find out.)DOODLEBUGSCrayon kids will love the fun and games at Pappyland, where your drawings always come to life. Open the box at http://www.pappyland.com and find a world of art, music and more. You'll play way-cool Pappy games, including the Buddy Bear Scrambler, Pappy's Puzzler and Chucky's Concentration.

Gene, Charles and Judy Iager live in the same Fulton community that people like Harry Brodie, Peter Oswald, John Adolphsen and hundreds of others call home. They're neighbors, and some of them see each other at church on Sundays. These days, however, they're not very neighborly.This week a public trial of sorts will begin for the planned development of hundreds of acres of Iager family farmland into nearly 1,200 homes -- a project that would not only change the neighborhood, it would dwarf it.On Wednesday night, the Howard County Council will begin holding weeks of public hearings, and many neighbors plan to voice their opposition to the proposal.

On June 18, 2009, UNA GENE (COOPER) HILKER, age 85, of Golden Valley. Preceded in death by husband, John and son, Philip; brothers, Homer and Leo. Survived by children, John David (Patricia), Una Lee (Mark Callahan), Charles (Eileen); grandchildren, Jeremy (Krystal), Jessica (Jeremiah) Ostebo, Daniel, Derrick and Dylan; great-grandchildren, Mason, Micah, Matthew, Ayden. Memorials preferred to donor's choice. Interment Fort Snelling. Visitation Sunday (TODAY), 5 to 8 P.M., and also one hour prior to the service Monday, 6 P.M. at: Washburn-McReavy Strobeck Johnson Chapel, 952-938-9020.

Kent Bugg came home from work one day a couple of years ago to learn that his wife, Dorothy Frohder, had abruptly retired from her job as a middle school guidance counselor. The woman with four degrees realized that she just couldn't do the work anymore. She could no longer use her computer properly. There were other hints of something amiss. She had stopped keeping track of the money she was spending. She couldn't find the words for simple things. On May 19, 2007, Frohder learned that what her husband had been attributing at times to a thyroid problem, at others to just plain aging, was really Alzheimer's disease.

Add one more attribute to the "right stuff" men should possess. It turns out the really righteous guys are also genetically programmed to be loving, faithful mates. Scientists at Sweden's Karolinska Institute reported recently that for the first time, they have found a direct link between a man's genetic makeup and his aptitude for marriage. Their research showed that men who lack a particular variant of a gene that influences brain activity are more likely to be devoted, loving husbands and more likely to be involved with women who praise them as emotionally close and available.

Gene G. Green, a homemaker and former longtime Roland Park resident, died July 29 of Alzheimer's disease at the Blakehurst retirement community. She was 83. Gene Marie Gillis was born in Baltimore and raised in the Pinehurst neighborhood of Baltimore County. She was a 1943 graduate of Notre Dame Preparatory School and earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in 1947. She worked selling appliances at the old Hutzler's department store on Howard Street, and for General Electric, before starting a family.

On July 29, 2008 GENE GILLIS GREEN, Age 83, beloved wife of the late Frederick J. Green, Jr., devoted mother of Regina Green Rule and F. Gillis Green, and cherished grandmother of four. A memorial service to celebrate her life will be held Monday, August 18, 2008 at 3 P.M. at the Shrine of Sacred Heart in Mt. Washington, 5800 Smith Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21209. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to Long Island Alzheimer's Foundation, 5 Channel Drive, Port Washington, NY 11050.

On June 30, 2008, GENE KAILER, originally from Baltimore; he had been living in Maine where he is survived by his wife, Dolores Johnson Kailer; father of Kelley Kailer, Debbie Pilat, Mike Kailer, Shelley Kailer and Bobby Kailer and grandfather of six grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Maine's Veterans Home, 44 Hogan Road, Unit D, Bangor, ME, 04401.

CYD CHARISSE, 86 Dancer and actress Cyd Charisse, the long-legged Texas beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died yesterday. Ms. Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam. She appeared in several dramatic films, but her fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and '50s. Classically trained, she could dance anything from a pas de deux in 1946's Ziegfeld Follies to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire of 1956's The Band Wagon (with Mr. Astaire)

On March 3, 2008, GENE D. MCCORMICK; beloved husband of Elizabeth Ocus McCormick (nee Copper); father of the late Daryll J. McCormick; stepfather of Warren, Gene, Joel, and Todd Ocus; grandfather of Katie Owens, Aaron R. McCormick, Elizabeth and Todd Ocus, Jr. Interment private. Arrangements by Daugherty Family Funeral Home and Cremation Center, P.A., in Pasadena.

On December 13, 2007, FRANCES JOAN (nee Ridgley); beloved wife of the late Herbert E. Muenze "Gene"; loving mother of Paul E. Muenze, Sr.; cherished grandmother of Chelsea A. Muenze, Kennedy A. Muenze, Carly-Gene B. Muenze and Paul E. Muenze, Jr.; dear great-grandmother of Demarco T. Stewart; loving sister of Guyann Peterson and Virginia Kirts. A Funeral Service will be held at the family owned Duda-Ruck Funeral Home of Dundalk, Inc., 7922 Wise Avenue, Tuesday, 10 a.m. Interment Sacred Heart of Jesus Cemetery.

On July 9, 2007, D. GENE WILLE, 75, of The Villages, FL. Born October 20, 1931 in Baltimore, MD. He was a graduate of Penn State University, followed with his MBA at American University. Gene lived most of his life in Maryland. He retired from the National Security Agency as a cryptology group manager. He served his country and was a proud reservist retired Captain for the US Navy and continued as a Captain in the Reserve until his death. He is survived by his wife Joan, sons, Bob, Jim, daughter, Cindy, 4 grandchildren, and a brother Carroll.