Mary S City

ST. MARY'S CITY -- There was a run on pantyhose throughout the Southern Maryland counties earlier this week.Some 80 sailing athletes, representing six states and three foreign countries were competing in the regatta segment of the Special Olympics World Summer Games at St. Mary's College of Maryland and, well, jellyfish showed up en masse."

ST. MARY'S CITY -- Led by Ronda Jo Miller (21 points), Gallaudet overcame a 10-point second-half deficit to defeat St. Mary's, 80-73, last night in an NCAA Division III women's tournament first-round game.Gallaudet (23-5) will face the College of New Jersey in the second round Saturday at 3 p.m.Felicia Harris scored 18 points, including four three-pointers, to give the Seahawks a 37-30 lead at the half. St. Mary's scored the first three points of the second half for a 40-30 lead.GALLAUDET -- Rollven 4-9 0-0 10, Whitney 1-8 1-4 3, Miller 10-18 1-1 21, Ouahid 6-15 1-2 15, R.Johnson 7-16 1-1 15, S.Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Virnig 2-5 0-1 4, Cooper 2-4 5-8 9, Nowak 1-5 1-3 3. Totals 33-81 10-20 80.ST.

ST. MARY'S CITY - In a vacant field the sun peeks through the wooden door frame marking where the first Catholic church in America once stood. The walls will soon be raised, too, one hand-made brick at a time, if a fund-raising campaign to re-create this piece of Colonial Maryland is successful.The chapel will sit across an archaeological park from the already reconstructed State House. In the spirit of separation of church and state, the Historic St. Mary's City Foundation and Friends is seeking mostly private donations to construct the religious building.

The remains of St. John's House are crumbling, and with them go the last traces of the 1638 building where a Marylander cast the first votes by a black man in any New World legislature.The 361-year-old archaeological site, on the campus of St. Mary's College in Southern Maryland, has been designated as the first in a series of endangered objects and places nominated to compete for preservation grants under the new "Save Maryland's Treasures" campaign.The effort is sponsored by the Maryland Commission for Celebration 2000, and a coalition of state agencies, nonprofit organizations and private corporations.

Three decades of archaeology at Historic St. Mary's City -- the site of Maryland's vanished 17th-century capital -- have produced some extraordinary glimpses into the lives of Maryland's first settlers. But tourists and their dollars remain scarce.Except for a reconstructed statehouse and tavern, and a small museum, most traces of the Colonial village remain buried in the ground, or in the imagination.In its latest bid to jump-start the state-owned tourist outpost with new money and leadership, the Historic St. Mary's City Commission has hired a museum heavyweight to be its next executive director -- its third in five years.

ST. MARY'S CITY -- A showdown in the tiny waterfront town of St. Mary's City ended yesterday when Benjamin C. Bradlee, chairman of the Historic St. Mary's City Commission, told 40 angry residents that the site's popular executive director had resigned.But Bradlee would not tell supporters of Candace Matelic, 45, the circumstances of her departure after less than a year at the head of the state's outdoor living-history museum.The terms of a potential agreement with Matelic barred him from discussing the matter, he told a crowd that confronted him and other members of the commission at its regular meeting.

Colonial ThanksgivingDiscover how the end of the harvest was celebrated in Colonial times during "Giving Thanks: Hearth and Home in Early Maryland" this weekend at Historic St. Mary's City, an outdoor living history museum. The museum-wide exploration of 17th-century food and cooking includes demonstrations of hearth cooking, pickling meats and vegetables, preserving fruits, dairying and drying. Visitors are encouraged to help by churning butter, shucking beans, grinding corn and more.The program is presented from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday.

Maryland's 364thCelebrate Maryland's 364th birthday with a festival and a party Saturday and Sunday in Historic St. Mary's City, Maryland's first capital. Saturday's festival includes pageantry, music, a militia muster by the St. Mary's City Militia, horse-drawn wagon ride and archaeological excavations. The official birthday commemoration will take place on Sunday at 1 p.m. with the colorful Ceremony of the Flags, featuring fourth-graders from Baltimore City and every Maryland county, the opening of the "Colonial Capitals of the Chesapeake: Jamestown and St. Mary's City" and a 1992 St. Mary's City excavation, "Project Lead Coffins: The Search for Maryland's Founders."

ALL SYMPATHY goes to the academic community at St. Mary's College, the state liberal arts college in St. Mary's City. Its semi-isolation in rural Southern Maryland makes this school of 1,500 students tight-knit, with people sharing each other's joys and griefs.Thus, the robbery and rape that victimized 16 members of the college on a field trip in Guatemala is an even greater shock to this institution than would be the case at a larger, more impersonal university.Guatemala has been progressively unsafe since its three-decade civil war ceased at the end of 1996.

Two Baltimore County men attending college, one in Southern Maryland and the other in Virginia, were killed in separate automobile accidents over the weekend, said authorities from the two jurisdictions.A single-car crash yesterday claimed the life of Joshua P. Dansicker, 21, of the 2600 block of Cedarhurst Drive in Reisterstown, who was a senior at St. Mary's College of Maryland in St. Mary's City.On Saturday night, Daniel J. Kelly, 20, of the 300 block of Pressway Road in Timonium and a sophomore at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University at Blacksburg, Va., died shortly after a car struck him as he and another student walked along a campus road.

It's been 75 years since Marylanders last got a look at the 17th-century document in which King James I declared George Calvert the first Lord Baltimore. But they'll get another chance Saturday as the continuing celebration of the state's 375th birthday reaches Historic St. Mary's City. Visitors to the state's archaeological museum village, on the site of the colony's first capital, will also enjoy tall ships, music, a "1634 ale" specially brewed for the occasion, food and entertainment.

ST. MARY'S CITY -Henry Miller's assignment might have been hopeless. As research director for Historic St. Mary's City, he was expected to guide the reconstruction of the first Roman Catholic house of worship in English America, for which no drawings or even written descriptions have ever been found. All that was left of the 1667 Brick Chapel in Maryland's first Colonial capital were its huge, 3-foot-thick brick foundation and thousands of fragments of glass, lead, brick and plaster sifted from the soil during 20 years of painstaking archaeology.

The Board of Public Works approved two waterfront development proposals yesterday over the objections of environmental activists in Talbot and St. Mary's counties, though Gov. Martin O'Malley issued sharp rebukes to state officials for their handling of community relations. The board - consisting of O'Malley, State Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp and Comptroller Peter Franchot - voted unanimously to approve a wetlands license needed for the development of a 30-slip "community marina" at a major new residential development in Easton.

St. Mary's City -- Nezia Munezero and her 10-member family spent years running from one East African refugee camp to another, staying one step ahead of death in a world torn by ethnic warfare and genocide. In 2002, they were resettled in Baltimore. At age 16 and with no knowledge of English, she enrolled at the now-shuttered Southwestern High School and lived in a grim neighborhood beset by urban crime. It was a stepping-stone to a better life, but also another place to flee. "Students at Southwestern weren't friendly toward immigrants," said Munezero, 22, a slight woman with a lilting accent.

ST. MARY'S CITY -- From the outside, the new brick classroom building at St. Mary's College looks much like the other Colonial-style structures on the riverfront campus of this small, historic liberal-arts school. But inside, Goodpaster Hall represents something very different for St. Mary's - and for the rest of Maryland. From the recycled wood flooring to the sod covering part of its roof, it is one of the state's first "green" college buildings, and a potential prototype for many more such taxpayer-funded facilities to come.

`Abilities Count' The lowdown -- The "Abilities Count" Sports Expo will take place tomorrow at the Farring-Baybrook Recreation Center. Adults and children with disabilities have the chance to go kayaking and horseback riding, and play other sports. If you go -- The recreation center is at 4501 Farring Court. All participants must pre-register. Call 410-396-7072. Great Grapes The lowdown -- Sample hundreds of wines from around the globe, listen to live music and see wine pairing demonstrations at the Great Grapes Wine, Arts and Food Festival this weekend.

On July 11, 2006, RON SIEGERT, husband of Jeannette Willard Siegert; father of Michael, Kim and Steve Siegert; grandfather of Shannon, Andy, Lauren and Casey Siegert; brother of John and Gene Siegert. He was predeceased by his grandson Josh Siegert. Services and interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Joshua L. Siegert Memorial Education Scholarship Fund, St. Mary's College of Maryland, 18952 E. Fisher Road, St. Mary's City, MD 20686.

On July 11, 2006, RON SIEGERT, husband of Jeannette Willard Siegert; father of Michael, Kim and Steve Siegart; grandfather of Shannon, Andy, Lauren and Casey Siegart; brother of John and Gene Siegert. He was predeceased by his grandson Josh Siegart. Services and interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Joshua L. Siegart Memorial Education Scholarship Fund, St. Mary's College of Maryland, 18952 E. Fisher Road, St. Mary's City, MD 20686.

1648: remarkable Margaret Brent Talk about audacity. On Jan. 21, 1648, Margaret Brent, then 47, appeared before the Maryland General Assembly and requested two votes: one for herself as a landowner and one as Lord Baltimore's attorney. Her request was denied, but she is remembered as a remarkable woman of the 17th century. Brent and other family members came to the Maryland colony empowered with a land grant, hailing from a landed Catholic family in Gloucestershire, England. Her single status was unusual because in Maryland she entered a society in which men outnumbered women about six to one. The governor, Leonard Calvert, did not fare well during a period of religious strife.

William Thomas Rowe, a noted artist who established the art department and taught for two decades at St. Mary's College in St. Mary's City, died of complications from a stroke Friday at the home of a daughter in St. Mary's County. He was 81. Mr. Rowe also was known as the "father of men's lacrosse" at St. Mary's -- even though he never played the sport himself. Born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville, Mr. Rowe graduated from Loyola High School in 1941. He enlisted in the Marine Corps and during World War II fought in the South Pacific.