Librarian

Adelaide C. Rackemann, a former librarian who was also a poet, conservationist, horticulturist, bird watcher and a freelance writer, died Sunday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center after suffering a fall at her Bare Hills home. She was 86. Adelaide Hardcastle Crawley, the daughter of a lawyer and a homemaker, was born in New York City and raised in Port Washington, N.Y. After graduating from Port Washington High School in 1941, she earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Wellesley College in 1945.

Anne W. Chase, a retired Harford County elementary school librarian who was also an accomplished storyteller and church choir member, died June 13 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at her home in Baltimore's Arlington neighborhood. She was 77. Anne Williams, the daughter of a pastor and a homemaker, was born in Suffolk, Va. The family moved to Harrisburg, Pa., in 1936 when her father, the Rev. John B. Williams, was named pastor of the Second Baptist Church. After graduating from John Harris High School in Harrisburg in 1949, she enrolled at Hampton University in Hampton, Va., where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1953.

Joyce V. "Joy" Sackett, a retired parochial school librarian and official scorekeeper for a youth baseball team, died March 25 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Sunrise Senior Care in Severna Park. She was 75. Joyce Virginia Grant was born in Severna Park and raised in West Baltimore. After graduating from Western High School in 1951, she worked as a secretary for Cochran Transfer. After her 1957 marriage to Walter Sackett, she worked for several years as a secretary for a Baltimore furniture distribution company.

Paulette Tanenbaum, a retired Harford County librarian, died of malignant melanoma March 8 at her home in Street. She was 79. Paulette Townsend was born in Paris, the daughter of an American pastor and a French mother. After the Germans occupied France, the family fled to Lisbon, Portugal, where they boarded a ship for New York. They lived in southern New Jersey before moving to Providence, R.I., where Mrs. Tanenbaum graduated from Mount Pleasant High School. She later moved to Harford County, where she worked as a county librarian in Bel Air and Fallston for 30 years.

Founded on belief in the inherent dignity of everyone, Dignity Players begins its fifth season at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis continuing its mission of presenting plays that focus on social justice. This season's opening production of Arab-American playwright Yussef El Guidi's Back of the Throat illustrates the effects of the U.S. Patriot Act on Arab-American citizens. In this dark, sometimes comic drama examining post 9/11 attitudes toward Muslims, protagonist Arab-American writer Khaled is visited by two initially friendly but puzzling government officials, who become menacingly probing and later abusive toward an astonished Khaled, who discovers that he is the focus of a government inquiry into his alleged terrorist ties.

Every once in a while, you hear a story like the one recently about the librarian who left more than $650,000 to the Enoch Pratt Free Library in her will - more money than she earned during her entire career there. It makes you wonder: Why are some of us great savers despite modest incomes, while others are living paycheck to paycheck even with healthy salaries? And could this recession spur a new generation or two to become avid savers, as the Depression did before? The recession is already having an impact.

Enoch Pratt Free Library officials happily discovered the esteem one of their retirees held for the place. At her death, Sara Siebert directed that more than $650,000 of her assets go to the library, a figure that exceeds the total of all the paychecks she took home in her 34 years as Pratt's director of young adult reading. Siebert, an energetic and popular librarian who sought no attention as a donor during her life, left an estate of more than $2 million after her death at age 88 last year.

Mildred G. Knauff, a retired librarian, educator and homemaker, died of a stroke Sept. 8 at Glen Meadows retirement community in Glen Arm. She was 97. Mildred Grace Fielder was born in Baltimore and raised in the city's Raspeburg neighborhood. She graduated in 1928 from Eastern High School and earned her teaching certificate in 1931 from what is now Towson University. After college, she was trained to operate a Comptometer - an early adding machine - and later taught others how to operate them.

Sister Rita Marie Helldorfer, a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame who taught history, died of a stroke May 1 at her order's retirement home in the Woodbrook section of Baltimore County. She was 91. She was born Rita Regina Helldorfer in Baltimore and raised on St. Paul Street in Charles Village. She and her twin sister, Teresa, were the 11th and 12th children of brewer Frank Helldorfer and his wife, the former Anna Rueter. She attended Notre Dame Preparatory School from first through 12th grade, when the school shared grounds with the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.