Hamer

On April 7, 2003, GEORGE E. McNEILL, SR., beloved husband of the late June McNeill (nee Barr); devoted father of George E. McNeill, Jr., and wife Carolyn, Ann "Dolly" Hamer, and husband Ken, and the late Paul "Terry" McNeill, Sr., and his wife Claire; loving grandfather of Evelyn Thorsen, Tommy McNeill, Teresa Jones, Terry McNeill, Jr., Derek McNeill, Jason McNeill, Ryan McNeill, and Shannon Hamer; dear brother of Walter J. McNeill, Sr., Howard E. McNeill,...

JOSEPHINE V. HAMER, age 90, of Rehoboth Beach, DE died Friday, February 21, 2003, at her residence in Rehoboth Beach. Mrs. Hamer was born in Keyser, WV, daughter of the late Joseph and Bertie Oates Bissett. She had formerly worked as an assembler for the Westinghouse Corporation. She was a member of the Methodist Church. In addition to her parents she was predeceased by her husband Ralph Abbott Hamer in 1984. She is survived by two sons, Ralph Hamer of Rehoboth Beach, DE and Squire Ernest Hamer of Charles Town, WV; on brother, Charles Tysinger of Keyser, WV; 15 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.

RALPH ABBOTT HAMER, III, age 42, of Rehoboth Beach, DE., died unexpectedly, at home in his sleep, on Thursday February 13, 2003. Born in Baltimore, MD he was a retired Military Policeman and Commercial Debt Financier. Ralph moved to Rehoboth nearly five years ago and found a special place to call home. He was an avid golfer, great dancer and loved singing and live music. He lived for long summer days golfing and cool summer nights on the Rudder Deck dancing with friends and family. He was a loving father, devoted brother and son and loyal friend.

From her home in Highland Beach, Elizabeth Jean West Langston often walks next door to the Frederick Douglass Museum and Cultural Center to give tours of his former summer home. She unlocks the door, then begins telling stories about artifacts from Douglass' life - the trunk he took to Europe, the game table where he played checkers with his grandchildren, the chair in which he rocked. "I've gone through it so often that sometimes I go through it too fast," said Langston, 63, who helped lead the effort to get the legendary abolitionist's home turned into a museum in 1996.

From her home in Highland Beach, Elizabeth Jean West Langston often walks next door to the Frederick Douglass Museum and Cultural Center to give tours of his former summer home. She unlocks the door, then begins telling stories about artifacts from Douglass' life - the trunk he took to Europe, the game table where he played checkers with his grandchildren, the chair in which he rocked. "I've gone through it so often that sometimes I go through it too fast," said Langston, 63, who helped lead the effort to get the legendary abolitionist's home turned into a museum in 1996.

Annapolis Alderman Sheila M. Tolliver, a Democrat who represents Ward 2, and WYRE-AM radio program director Melissa Owens are among six women being given the Fannie Lou Hamer Award tomorrow by the Martin Luther King Jr. Awards committee. Other award winners are Mary Ringgold, a Severn activist; Barbara Ann Dorsey, president of the YWCA board of directors; Deborah Mackall, an Annapolis activist; and Margurite R. Askew-Kirkland, a Severna Park activist. They will be honored at the ceremony scheduled for 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Banneker-Douglass Museum.

6 women to be honored at annual Hamer awards Six extraordinary women are to be feted at the 5th Annual Fannie Lou Hamer Awards reception, named after the famous feminist and civil rights activist. The reception, which will be held at the Banneker Douglass Museum, 84 Franklin Street in Annapolis, is held each year to honor women who keep her legacy alive through their words, deeds, and actions. Mrs. Hamer was a remarkable woman. The daughter of a Mississippi sharecropper, she won national acclaim and assisted Martin Luther King, Jr. in working for the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, that insures that African-Americans right to vote would be protected.

A loud, clear voice breaks the quiet in Courtroom 2. Lawyer Janet LaBella, longtime advocate for Anne Arundel County's poor, lobs her first legal volley of the afternoon. As it turns out, there's plenty more where that came from. Short and intense, with piercing dark eyes, LaBella goes to work. This time she's defending a public housing resident who faces eviction for missing four rent payments in a year, a violation of the Annapolis Housing Authority's "four strikes and you're out" policy.

Howard County prosecutors dropped all charges against a 21-year-old man accused of murder in the heroin overdose death of a friend yesterday, one month after they failed to persuade a judge and jury to convict another defendant in the same case. The decision not to prosecute the second-degree murder, manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges against Wesley Tyson Hamerly came out of talks that followed the acquittal of Scott Milner Sheldon, 22, on the same charges Sept. 1, prosecutors said.

A member of the Baltimore liquor board who also is the son of a city councilwoman avoided going to jail yesterday by admitting he fired a .38-caliber gun in his mother's campaign offices after a dispute with one of the workers. William A. Welch, 46, pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court to second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm. In an agreement with prosecutors, Welch was given a three-year suspended sentence and three years' probation by Judge William D. Quarles.