Gretchen

Pat Green After spending the summer as the surprise standout on a tour that included Gretchen Wilson and Kenny Chesney, Texas native country musician Pat Green performs with opening act Hanna-McEuen at Rams Head Live on Saturday. Green's current single, "Baby Doll," co-written with Rob Thomas, highlights his newest album, Lucky Ones. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. for the 9.30 p.m. show. Tickets are $20 in advance, $23 day of, and can be purchased online at ramsheadlive.com, over the phone at 410-244-1131, or at the Rams Head box office at 20 Market Place.

Services for Gretchen Maria Kess, a home care provider who sang with several area gospel choirs, will be held at 7 p.m. today at Mount Zion United Methodist Church, 8178 Arctic Drive in Pasadena. Mrs. Kess, who was 43 and a Glen Burnie resident, was killed April 28 in an automobile accident on the Baltimore Beltway near Windsor Mill Road. Gretchen Maria Spencer was born in Baltimore and raised in Glen Burnie. She was a 1979 graduate of Glen Burnie High School and studied nursing at Anne Arundel Community College.

On November 17, 2004, GRETCHENMARTINA BRANDT of Woodbine, beloved daughter of Gary M. and Andrea (nee Notaro) Brandt; devoted sister of Joey, Troy and Kyle Brandt; dearest granddaughter of Joseph and Ann Notaro and Emmett and Millicent Brandt; also survived by aunts, uncles and cousins. Funeral Services will be held on Sunday at 2 P.M. from Wesley Freedom United Methodist Church, 961 Johnsville Rd., Eldersburg. Interment in Wesley Freedom Church Cemetery. Friends may call at the Haight Funeral Home and Chapel, Rt 32 near Eldersburg on Saturday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 P.M. In lieu of flowers, donations to Century High School Athletic Boosters, Attn: Gretchen Brandt Memorial, 355 Ronsdale Rd., Sykesville, MD 21784.

Gretchen A. Whitney, a retired Baltimore elementary school teacher and librarian, died of a heart attack Friday at Good Samaritan Hospital. The Northeast Baltimore resident was 88. Born Gretchen Ann Kurtzman in Hibbing, Minn., she earned a bachelor's degree in education from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn. She moved to Baltimore in 1952 with her husband, Ambrose Whitney, a W.R. Grace chemist. He died in 1997. She began teaching fourth grade at Northwood Elementary School in 1954, and after 12 years she became the librarian at Glenmount Elementary.

On October 22, 2004 GRETCHEN A. WHITNEY (nee Kurtzman); beloved wife of the late Ambrose G. Whitney; devoted mother of Robert P. Whitney of Connecticut and Jeanne W. Mc Guire. Also survived by five grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. Friends may call at the family owned Ruck Towson Funeral Home, Inc., 1050 York Road (beltway exit 26-A), on Monday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. A Funeral Mass will be celebrated in the St. Ursula Church on Tuesday at 9 A.M. Entombment Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens.

TOP 40 SINGLES 1 Maroon 5, "She Will Be Loved" 2 Ashlee Simpson, "Pieces of Me" 3 Avril Lavigne, "My Happy Ending" 4 Black Eyed Peas, "Let's Get It Started" 5 Ryan Cabrera, "On the Way Down" URBAN SINGLES 1 Ciara featuring Petey Pablo, "Goodies" 2 Terror Squad, "Lean Back" 3 Jadakiss featuring Anthony Hamilton, "Why" 4 Nelly, "My Place" 5 Alicia Keys, "Diary" COUNTRY SINGLES 1 Keith Urban, "Days Go By" 2 Tim McGraw, "Live Like You Were Dying"...

Gretchen Jane Hartman, a dietitian and former division chief for the state health department, died Tuesday at St. Joseph Medical Center of complications from surgery after a fall. She was 90 and had lived for about 15 years at Edenwald in Towson, where she was chairwoman of its food committee. Miss Hartman, who was known as Jane, was a Pittsburgh-area native who earned a bachelor's degree in nutrition from West Virginia University and a master's degree from Drexel University. After working for several years in Pennsylvania, Miss Hartman moved to Baltimore and worked for several years as Sinai Hospital's director of dietetics.

The Village Bride of Beverly Hills By Kavita Daswani (Put-nam, 288 pages, $23.95) The tension between duty and freedom has long been a favorite subject for American novelists of Indian origin, from Bharati Mukherjee to Jhumpa Lahiri. Usually weighty, the theme gets a more light-handed treatment here. Daswani, author of a well-received 2003 novel, For Matrimonial Purposes, was born in Hong Kong to parents from Bombay and now lives in Los Angeles, as does Priya, the heroine of her new book.

To 3-year-old Grace, who woke up from a nightmare in the middle of the night recently and climbed into bed with her, Gretchen Wilson is just "Mom." To the rest of the world, though, she's "Redneck Woman," the country singer whose song of the same name shot up the charts so fast that the relative newcomer can now travel in comfort: two tour buses instead of one. It was lunchtime yesterday when Wilson talked on her cell phone from one of those buses, but...