Millersville

On August 20, 2008, RAY J. JICKA of Millersville, MD; beloved husband of Marcia A. Jicka; loving father of Kathleen Doud, Mark Jicka, Mary Louise Palucki and Maureen Lalor; devoted grandfather of ten grandchildren. Family and friends are invited to BARRANCO & SONS P.A. SEVERNA PARK FUNERAL HOME, Ritchie Highway at Robinson Road on Sunday 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 P.M. A memorial Mass will be held Monday at 10 A.M. at Our Lady of the Fields Catholic Church. Interment Our Lady of the Fields Cemetery.

The state Board of Public Works has awarded Anne Arundel County $2.3 million to improve three parks, including building a visitor center at a popular Millersville park, developing a Crownsville park and improving athletic fields in Pasadena. Kinder Farm Park in Millersville will receive the bulk of the Program Open Space funding, with $1.1 million going to the design and construction of a 5,600-square-foot visitor center, the state announced. The 288-acre farm was purchased by the county in 1979 to educate visitors about Maryland's agrarian heritage and direct visitors to activities that include fishing, biking, hiking and picnicking.

41 Pitches thrown by Archbishop Spalding left-hander Paul DeVito in the first inning of his 7-2 loss to Calvert Hall on Friday in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference baseball tournament. The Cards batted around and scored four runs in the inning. 449 Career wins to go with three state titles in 30 seasons by Old Mill baseball coach Mel Montgomery, who is contemplating retirement. Montgomery retired as a science teacher five years ago but remained as coach at the Millersville school.

David E. Johnson Sr., a retired construction company equipment superintendent and avid sports fan, died of heart failure Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Pasadena resident was 72. Mr. Johnson was born in Salem, Mass., and spent his early years in Syracuse, N.Y., before moving to Towson. After graduating from Towson High School in 1954, he attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration. He worked for a trading-stamp company from 1958 to 1961, when he joined C. J. Langenfelder & Sons, a contracting company.

A 52-year-old career thief and mother of six was convicted yesterday of secretly stealing thousands of dollars from her boyfriend and stabbing him to death before his body was found burning along an Anne Arundel County road. Two weeks before her trial was to begin, Cynthia J. McKay entered a guilty plea to charges of second-degree murder and felony theft, ducking a possible life sentence in a crime that ensnared two of her sons. She now faces a maximum penalty of 30 years. Prosecutors and defense attorneys involved in the case said piecing together not just the death of Anthony Fertitta, whose body was found ablaze not far from McKay's Millersville townhouse in February 2006, but McKay's past made the case one of the most complicated they had ever handled.

A high school senior from Millersville has been named one of the 15 recipients of the national American Civil Liberties Union's 2008 Youth Activist Scholarship contest. Chip Gibbons, a recent intern with the Maryland affiliate and a champion for the First Amendment at Severna Park High School, will receive a $5,000 college scholarship. "Chip is one of the most concerned and aware interns we've ever had," said Amy Cruice, legal program administrator for the ACLU of Maryland. "Since his first day at the ACLU, it was clear that Chip strongly believed in defending the Bill of Rights and the rights of all people from his high school to Maryland's prisons to Guantanamo Bay."

Timothy Kuhn of Millersville received some Internet trivia claiming that February 1865 had no full moon, the only time that's ever happened. "Have you ever heard of this?" Tim asked. "It seems impossible to me." Bogus on several counts. First, the moon was full on Feb. 10, 1865. There was no full moon in February 1866, but that happens periodically because February is shorter than the lunar cycle (29.53 days on average). It happened in 1885, 1915, 1934, 1961 and 1999, and will again in 2018.

On October 1, 2007 loving wife of Robert H. Stansbury; beloved mother of Therese Horwath of Heathsville, VA, Roberta Newell of Silver Spring, MD, Patricia Erdelatz of Ripon, CA, Robert H. Stansbury, Jr. of Arnold, MD, Timothy E. Stansbury of Millersville, MD, H. Douglas Stansbury of Snellville, GA and Jane Hamblin of Mooresville, NC; sister of Betty O'Neill of Hyattsville, MD; devoted grandmother of 23; great-grandmother of 38; great-great-grandmother of...

Christopher Scott Frank, a utilities lineman, died Thursday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center after the motorcycle he was driving was struck on Liberty Road in Reisterstown. The Union Bridge resident was 40. Born in Baltimore and raised in Millersville, he attended Old Mill High School and later received a General Educational Development diploma. At his death, he was a lineman for W.A. Chester in Rockville, a firm that does subcontracting work for BGE. A motorcycle enthusiast, Mr. Frank owned a Polaris Victory.

No charges will be filed relating to an investigation of a Shipley's Choice Elementary School field trip in which students were allegedly stripped and searched for ticks, Anne Arundel County police said. "Our investigation is closed," Cpl. Mark Shawkey, a county police spokesman, said yesterday. "There was no criminal intent found, and no criminal charges have been placed." About 80 third-graders and 30 adult chaperones and teachers had gone to Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center in Millersville for an overnight trip April 26-27.