Lonaconing

Ruth Bear Levy, an artist and author who drew a lifetime of inspiration from her days growing up in Lonaconing, died Saturday of heart failure at Union Memorial Hospital. She was 95."She always called Lonaconing 'God's country,' " said Elizabeth Ann Malis, a granddaughter who lives in Pikesville.F. deSales Meyer, a retired state information officer and also a native of Lonaconing in Allegany County, said, "Ruth never really left 'Coney' even though she lived most of her life in Baltimore.

Only a few days before Christmas, the little town of Lonaconing is not quite as merry as usual. And it's a lot less bright. While nearby towns sparkle with lights, this tiny coal-mining community in the mountains of Western Maryland lies still and sparsely decorated. Unless you count the blowup Grinch on Main Street. Some locals put up the Grinch as a prank - and a protest - after a utility pole dispute forced the town to abandon its 68-year tradition of stringing colored bulbs across Main Street.

LONACONING -- On the steep slopes of the Alleghenies, where for generations coal miners and their sons burrowed into the rock-hard earth, lived an independent man who refused to dig for a living. His name was Robert Moses Grove, otherwise known as Lefty, who threw a baseball with extraordinary effectiveness and thus found a comfortable way to enjoy days in the sun by not having to put on a lanterned helmet and go underground.He had incredible speed, amassed enormous strikeout totals and pitched his way into the Hall of Fame.

LONACONING -- At the end of their shift July 7, 1957, the women at the silk mill stopped winding the soft thread. They walked out as usual, leaving behind their aprons, face powder, even a few shoes. The superintendent hung up his straw hat. None of them ever returned. And nearly 50 years after the General Textile Mills factory closed overnight, it looks the same, stopped in time, a haunting archive of the industrial life that once flourished in remote mountain towns like this one in Western Maryland.

LONACONING -- The way the story goes, workers wanted a nickel raise and that was just too much for the company to pay. The natural-silk industry was declining, threatened by competition from the new synthetic fibers, and so, on July 7, 1957, the mill shut its doors forever.The 300 employees found themselves abruptly out of work -- so abruptly that some left their shoes and aprons behind on the factory floor. Along with the rows and rows of iron spinners and doublers, and the star-shaped winders and the wooden bobbins and the soaking tubs and all the other appurtenances of an early silk mill, they remain just as they were left, virtually untouched for almost 40 years.

Ruth Bear Levy grabs a package of Berger's cookies out of the freezer. "Don't you just love them?" she asks.Fresh from a music appreciation class, she is considering attending a current events class later in the day.The following day, she plans to pack a picnic lunch and try the light rail for the first time. She wants to write an essay comparing the new transportation system with the streetcars that once carried Baltimoreans to work and play.On Wednesday -- Veterans Day -- Mrs. Levy turns 94.She has worn out six answering machines because she gets so many phone calls.

On July 29, 2003 DOROTHY MARY (nee Probert), daughter of the W.H. Probert and Anna Dutton Probert. She was born February 7, 1902 in Lonaconing, MD. Memorial service will be held August 10 at Maryland Church of the Rock, 900 Church Street, Brooklyn Park, MD.

John C. Meyers Sr., a former high school coach in Western Maryland who won seven state basketball titles, died Friday of complications from cancer at Sacred Heart Hospital in Cumberland. He was 80 and lived in Lonaconing.Mr. Meyers taught physical education for 36 years at Central and Valley high schools (now Westmar High School) in Lonaconing and coached basketball, baseball and soccer at the schools for 34 years. He retired in 1983.Before becoming a teacher, he was an Army staff sergeant during World War II, landing in Normandy in 1944.

LONACONING -- Despite rain this week, a water shortage looms for about 5,500 residents in the coal-mining region of western Allegany County, county officials said yesterday.Wally Finster, director of environmental health at the county Health Department, said a months-long drought has lowered reservoir and ground water levels in the Georges Creek Valley, prompting bans on outdoor water use and laundry in some communities.Lonaconing is by far the most populous area threatened. Many )) of the 500 or so people in most danger of losing water live in remote areas of the mountainous region.

LONACONING -- Republicans from far and wide have come to a grand old place in Lonaconing -- the meeting hall of the Grand Old Party where members have assembled for debate, drink and duckpins for 49 years.Hidden away in the Western Maryland mountains of Allegany County, the Lonaconing Republican Club is legendary for its party loyalty, so much so that its members boast that it is the largest such Republican club in the nation."I think we are considered the largest Republican Club incorporated in the United States," said club President Marvin "Huck" Shockey.

LONACONING - State highway officials thought they were doing the small towns of Western Maryland a favor when they designated a 54-mile stretch of road the Maryland Coal Heritage Route. They figured the historic label, bolstered by a colorful tour book distributed around the state, might help the local economy by luring travelers to obscure old mining villages such as Midland, Westernport and Mount Savage. Then, a few merchants - also dreaming of out-of-town dollars - posted signs for their businesses along the scenic, two-lane road.

It was homecoming at Westmar High School in Lonaconing last weekend, with the Wildcats taking on their longtime foe, the Mountaineers from Frostburg's Beall Senior High. It was a traditional event in many ways, even considering some of the changes that have happened over the past few years. The schools, for instance, located about 8 1/2 miles apart, have combined a lot of things: the football game is homecoming for both schools; both "royal courts" are introduced; both bands perform. That kind of consolidation doesn't sit well with everyone at either school, but even less so at Westmar, where it seems like another step toward the schools' eventual merger.

On July 29, 2003 DOROTHY MARY (nee Probert), daughter of the W.H. Probert and Anna Dutton Probert. She was born February 7, 1902 in Lonaconing, MD. Memorial service will be held August 10 at Maryland Church of the Rock, 900 Church Street, Brooklyn Park, MD.

LONACONING - Robert Moses Grove - "Lefty" to anyone who knows baseball - was universally considered among the best southpaws ever to pitch professionally. In 1931, he compiled a record of 31 wins and four losses and won the first Most Valuable Player trophy given by the American League. Grove died in 1975, leaving the trophy to the people of his hometown, this hardscrabble coal-mining community in the hills of Western Maryland. The puzzling thing is what the people of Lonaconing did with the trophy: not a whole lot. For years, it sat in storage at the high school, blending in with school basketball and volleyball trophies.

When the Lonaconing silk mill abruptly padlocked its doors July 7, 1957, after a labor dispute, it locked in decades of history and even a few employees' lunches.Now the Allegany County Commission is looking for ways to salvage that industrial heritage, either preserving it as a museum or perhaps giving it new life in the form of offices or apartments.County commissioners have agreed to pay $5,500 for the Frostburg State University economics department to study uses for the 90-year-old building, which is privately owned.

LONACONING -- When Brian Kidwell twists on the faucets in his house high on a hill in dusty Allegany County, out pours something resembling mud. The water, what there is of it, is filthy brown, fit neither for laundry nor drinking.But for residents in this parched area of the state, water of any hue has become a blessing. In Lonaconing and the patchwork of other little towns and villages in the Georges Creek valley of Western Maryland, reservoirs are depleted to the point that some are empty.

Only a few days before Christmas, the little town of Lonaconing is not quite as merry as usual. And it's a lot less bright. While nearby towns sparkle with lights, this tiny coal-mining community in the mountains of Western Maryland lies still and sparsely decorated. Unless you count the blowup Grinch on Main Street. Some locals put up the Grinch as a prank - and a protest - after a utility pole dispute forced the town to abandon its 68-year tradition of stringing colored bulbs across Main Street.

LONACONING -- At the end of their shift July 7, 1957, the women at the silk mill stopped winding the soft thread. They walked out as usual, leaving behind their aprons, face powder, even a few shoes. The superintendent hung up his straw hat. None of them ever returned. And nearly 50 years after the General Textile Mills factory closed overnight, it looks the same, stopped in time, a haunting archive of the industrial life that once flourished in remote mountain towns like this one in Western Maryland.

John C. Meyers Sr., a former high school coach in Western Maryland who won seven state basketball titles, died Friday of complications from cancer at Sacred Heart Hospital in Cumberland. He was 80 and lived in Lonaconing.Mr. Meyers taught physical education for 36 years at Central and Valley high schools (now Westmar High School) in Lonaconing and coached basketball, baseball and soccer at the schools for 34 years. He retired in 1983.Before becoming a teacher, he was an Army staff sergeant during World War II, landing in Normandy in 1944.

LONACONING -- The way the story goes, workers wanted a nickel raise and that was just too much for the company to pay. The natural-silk industry was declining, threatened by competition from the new synthetic fibers, and so, on July 7, 1957, the mill shut its doors forever.The 300 employees found themselves abruptly out of work -- so abruptly that some left their shoes and aprons behind on the factory floor. Along with the rows and rows of iron spinners and doublers, and the star-shaped winders and the wooden bobbins and the soaking tubs and all the other appurtenances of an early silk mill, they remain just as they were left, virtually untouched for almost 40 years.