Kennedyville

KENNEDYVILLE - Coaxed to reflect on his 18 years in Washington, Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest acknowledges a single regret. "If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have run," he said. "I probably would have rested my days as an outfitter taking people on horseback rides in the northern Bitterroot towns of Idaho. Lived out a peaceful existence, in a log cabin that was still filled up with snow in May." It is a typically idiosyncratic answer from the Eastern Shore Republican, who spent time counting moose in Idaho between jobs as a high school history teacher and a house painter before he won his seat in 1990.

KENNEDYVILLE -- You'd never know it from the way he ambles about his home here in a ragged T-shirt and muddy work boots, but Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest has suddenly hit the big time in Washington.With his party's takeover of Congress this year, the three-term congressman from the Eastern Shore has been transformed from an obscure, kind of oddball backbencher into a national leader of a band of pro-environmental Republicans -- one of the most influential tribal factions in the party.He's waging floor fights, brokering votes, even tutoring House Speaker Newt Gingrich to try to thwart those Republicans who see many environmental regulations as a kind of government intrusion and are trying to get rid of them.

KENNEDYVILLE -- Farmers are a curious breed. They're always keeping an eye on their neighbor's fields and his farming practices. But this year, farmers around this rural Kent County community are paying more attention then ever to Gary Miller's corn crop.Gary Miller and his three brothers run 3-M's Farm, a grain-growing operation that spreads over 3,000 acres of some of the flattest land in all of Maryland. But it's just a small patch of their farm -- a 400-acre cornfield that butts up against Turner's Creek -- that captured the attention of farmers throughout the county and around much of the rest of the state this year.

KENNEDYVILLE -- Campaigning in a suit that reeks of cat urine would be a disadvantage for most politicians. But for Wayne Gilchrest, it was a money magnet.Back when Gilchrest was first running for Congress, his wife, Barbara, draped his only suit on a windowsill in their home to air it out. That night, a cat urinated just outside the window. In the morning, Gilchrest was a walking litter box.After a day driving across the Eastern Shore in his Plymouth Horizon, he pulled up to a big house with white columns in Easton seeking a little more money for his low-budget campaign.

Helen M. Uzzel, a retired sewing instructor and former Bel Air and Kennedyville resident, died of a stroke Aug. 14 at a hospital in Ocala, Fla. She was 80. Born and raised Helen M. Lozuk in East Baltimore, she was a graduate of Catholic High School. She taught sewing for 15 years before retiring in 1983. Mrs. Uzzel had lived in Bel Air for more than 30 years before moving to Kennedyville. Since 1994, she had lived in Ocala. She was a longtime member of Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, where she had been a Sunday school teacher.

Delaware guide Keith McGowan honked his way to a third crown in the 14th annual World Goose Calling Championship Saturday night at Easton. Winner of $3,000 and an engraved shotgun, he also won last year and in 1987.Once again, Jerry Haggerty, who guides for Vonnies Goos Valley in Kennedyville, placed second, and third was Albert Dager of Newark, Del. Winners of the Junior Division in order of finish were Joshua Neuwiller of Cordova, Donnie Jobes of Havre de Grace and Brian Watkins of Poquoson, Va.Ron Wieneke of Lincoln, Neb., won the Mason-Dixon duck callin championship and a ticket to the national finals in Arkansas.

Elsie Silcox, who was 100 and had lived in the Chestertown area for about 75 years, died Sunday at a retirement community in Dover, Del., after an illness of several months.Services for Mrs. Silcox, who was born in Petersburg, Del., were held Thursday at the Williams Funeral Home in Chestertown.The former Elsie Green moved to the Chestertown area in 1912. Her husband, J. Horton Silcox, died in 1947.Mrs. Silcox had lived in Dover for about three years.She is survived by two daughters, Frances S. Clendaniel of Chestertown and Jean S. Baldwin of Gastonia, N.C.; two sons, J. Horton Silcox Jr. of Kennedyville and Charles H. Silcox of Clearwater, Fla.; 15 grandchildren; and 24 great-grandchildren.

Martha Viola Langenfelder, who owned and managed a Perry Hall trailer park, died of unknown causes in her sleep Tuesday at the Heron Point Retirement Community in Chestertown. The former Baltimore County resident was 96. Born in Raspeburg in Baltimore County, she was the daughter of farmers Henry and Anuska Ann Langenfelder. She attended Rosedale Elementary School and began working on the family farm after graduating from the eighth grade. In 1936, she married a distant cousin, Conrad John Langenfelder, whom she met at a church event.

KENNETH RAYMOND SCROGGS, 58, of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia died at his home on June 12, 2004. He was born Feb. 22, 1946 in Amesbury, MA to John W. Scroggs of Baltimore, MD and Cecile Sevigny of Amesbury, MA. He grew up in Baltimore and Amesbury. At the age of 10, he moved to Laconia with his mother and stepfather, Roger Bedford. Survivors include his wife, Estela (Ella) Menor Scroggs of Saudi Arabia and the Philippines; two daughters, Ann Lucas and her husband Paul of Kennedyville, MD.; SGT Doreen Tolson USMC of Okinawa, Japan.