Montgomery Ward

Helen J. Johnson, a retired Montgomery Ward head cashier, died of cancer Saturday at a son's Towson home. She was 81. Born and raised in Wallace, W.Va., Helen Jean White was a 1940 graduate of Strayer's Business College in Washington. During World War II, she was employed by Western Union in Washington, where she was also a Civil Defense aircraft spotter. From 1966 until retiring in 1981, she was head cashier at the Montgomery Ward store in the old Eudowood Plaza shopping center. In 1943, she married Earl F. Johnson, former regional manager for Otis Elevator Co., who died in 1995.

Even before it closed in May 2012, Laurel Mall had taken a big plunge from its glory days when it opened in 1979 as Laurel Centre, with Montgomery Ward and JC Penny as anchor stores and droves of shoppers. By 2001, as consumer shopping habits veered away from enclosed malls and with the opening of larger, nearby shopping complexes, Laurel Mall had begun to decline. Montgomery Ward's bankruptcy led to its store closing at the mall. A year later, JC Penney left as well. By 2005, the mall found itself in a court-ordered receivership when its owners, Laurel Centre Associates, could not pay their debts.

Ruby Opal Brown, a retired Montgomery Ward employee who collected porcelain frogs, died from complications of a stroke Tuesday at Northwest Hospital Center. She was 87. She was born and reared Ruby McCutcheon in Charleston, W.Va., where she also graduated from high school. She worked for Libby-Owens-Ford Glass Co. in Kanahwa, W.Va., before moving to Baltimore in 1941. She was a brewery worker before she joined Montgomery Ward in 1947 as a clerk at its Monroe Street retail and mail-order facility.

Carl R. "Randy" Boles Sr., a retired security expert who was a fan of classic Western movies, died Sunday of complications from pneumonia and cardiac arrest at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center. He was 74. The son of a sheet metal worker and a homemaker, Carl Randolph Boles Sr. was born in Lynchburg, Va., and moved with his family to Baltimore in 1944. Mr. Boles, who did not attend high school, went to work setting type for a newspaper before following his father to Bethlehem Steel Corp., where he was a sheet metal worker.

ALAS, POOR Monkey Ward. I knew it well. In the fall of 1941, long before that old mail-order giant declared bankruptcy, I went to work at the company's big white building on Washington Boulevard and Monroe Street, in Baltimore. My job: answering letters about merchandise in the farm section of Ward's fat catalog. It didn't seem to trouble the man who hired me that my background didn't quite fit the job. I had lived all my life in New York City and knew nothing about farming. In truth, I did mislead him a little.

Anna M. Witt, a retired Montgomery Ward clerical worker and avid duckpin bowler, died of cancer Sunday at St. Agnes HealthCare. She was 95. Born and raised Anna Margaret Hesmar in Southwest Baltimore, she was a graduate of the commercial course at the old Fourteen Holy Martyrs Roman Catholic Church. Mrs. Witt worked from the 1940s until her retirement in 1970 at the old Montgomery Ward office on Monroe Street, where she was a typist. Earlier, she had been an Ediphone operator -- expert in the use of the dictaphone-type device invented by Thomas A. Edison.

CHICAGO -- Montgomery Ward & Co., which ran the nation's first mail-order business, said yesterday that it plans a cautious re-entry into the catalog market it abandoned as unprofitable six years ago.This time around, Ward's catalog offerings will be far more specialized, sophisticated, lower-cost and probably smaller in scale than the $1.2 billion business it closed in 1985, according to Bernard Brennan, chairman and chief executive officer."

Get out those credit cards, shoppers -- two new department stores opened in the county this week.Montgomery Ward & Co. in Cranberry Mall in Westminster and Peebles Department Store in Carrolltowne Mall in Eldersburg opened Monday, with grand opening ceremonies planned later this week.Montgomery Ward, Cranberry Mall's largest anchor, also is opening an Auto Express center.A grand opening ceremony for Peebles, which replaced the Jamesway store that closed in July, will be at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Baltimore would receive a huge economic boost under an ambitious plan to transform the long-vacant Montgomery Ward catalog building in Southwest Baltimore into one of the region's largest employment centers. Baltimore developers Sam Himmelrich Jr. and David F. Tufaro head a local group that expects to begin converting the 1925 landmark later this year, creating a $75 million business and technology park with room to house more than 5,000 employees. The developers say they have a contract to buy the eight-story building at 1000 S. Monroe St. from Montgomery Ward & Co. and plan to redevelop it over the next three to 12 years to create 1.3 million square feet of space -- 2 1/2 times the amount inside the B&O warehouse at Camden Yards.

Sears Roebuck and Co. has shown its "softer side." J. C. Penney Co., too, has undergone a successful makeover.Now Montgomery Ward, the 126-year-old mail-order catalog pioneer trying to emerge from bankruptcy, hopes to win shoppers over with a fresh merchandising mix and redesigned stores -- the first of which will be completed this year in Maryland and two other states.New store prototypes will be unveiled by late August or early September at Towson Marketplace in Towson, in Las Vegas and in Bloomingdale, Ill., a Montgomery Ward spokeswoman said.

James Thomas Lee Stubbs, a retired hospital laundry manager and World War II veteran, died Sunday of complications from dementia at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Perry Hall resident was 95. The son of a factory worker and Montgomery Ward cafeteria worker, he was born in Baltimore and raised in Pigtown. After his father, who worked at the Cat's Paw factory in South Baltimore, lost his job during the Depression, Mr. Stubbs dropped out of Southern High School in 1936 to help support his family.

Rosina D. Squires, a retired Montgomery Ward catalog worker who liked to garden, died Wednesday of vascular dementia at Ellicott City Rehabilitation Center. The longtime Elkridge resident was 87. The daughter of an immigrant Italian construction worker and a seamstress, Rosina Delores DePinto was born in Baltimore and raised on High Street in Little Italy. She attended a business school, family members said, where she studied to be a secretary. She later worked for 15 years in the mail order department of the old Montgomery Ward store on Monroe Street until retiring in the early 1980s.

Robert Hooper Thawley, a retired Peterson, Howell & Heather executive and World War II naval officer, died June 30 from complications of Parkinson's disease at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. He was 88. Mr. Thawley, the son of a lawyer and a homemaker, was born and raised in Denton, where he graduated in 1939 from Caroline High School. After earning a degree in economics in 1943 from Washington College, where he had been a member of the Navy Reserve, Mr. Thawley was commissioned an ensign.

Vernon LeRoy Winchester, a retired Montgomery Ward traffic manager and World War II submariner, died Tuesday in his sleep at his Waynesville, N.C., home. He was 83. Born and raised in Baltimore, Mr. Winchester enlisted in the Navy in 1942 after graduating from Polytechnic Institute. After completing training at the Naval Training Center in Bainbridge, he was assigned as an electrician's mate aboard S-Class submarines in the Pacific Theater. At war's end, he returned to Baltimore and worked at Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. and Beechnut Co. While working, he attended the University of Baltimore, where he earned a bachelor's degree in transportation management.

Rosemont residents have long lobbied the city to inject new life into a West Baltimore warehouse that's stood mostly vacant since a supermarket company pulled out years ago. Now that hoped-for revitalization appears to be on the way. The Baltimore Development Corp. said yesterday that it has found a company to redevelop the site. Himmelrich Associates Inc., a city real estate company best known for transforming the old Montgomery Ward catalog house and department store in Southwest Baltimore into upscale offices, is proposing a $22 million "community hub" with senior housing, offices, light manufacturing space and retail.

Catherine Ray, a retired Montgomery Ward supervisor who was active in Girl Scouting, died in her sleep of stroke complications Tuesday at Keswick Multi-Care Center. The South Baltimore resident was 101. Born Catherine Elizabeth Ruppert in Baltimore, she was raised at a boatyard her father owned at Curtis Creek. The family later resided on Battery Avenue, and she attended Southern High School through the ninth grade. Mrs. Ray worked in the service department of the old Montgomery Ward on Washington Boulevard for more than 25 years and retired as a supervisor.

Carl R. "Randy" Boles Sr., a retired security expert who was a fan of classic Western movies, died Sunday of complications from pneumonia and cardiac arrest at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center. He was 74. The son of a sheet metal worker and a homemaker, Carl Randolph Boles Sr. was born in Lynchburg, Va., and moved with his family to Baltimore in 1944. Mr. Boles, who did not attend high school, went to work setting type for a newspaper before following his father to Bethlehem Steel Corp., where he was a sheet metal worker.

After 22 years of selling in Catonsville, Montgomery Ward officially opened its doors today at its new home in Security Square Mall.Montgomery Ward, formerly located just one mile from the mall at U.S. 40 and Rolling Road, took over the 156,000-square-foot space left vacant by Hutzler's.Although the store has been open this week, the official ribbon-cutting ceremony wasn't until today."We are excited over what we will introduce to shoppers in this area," said Bernard F. Brennan, chairman of the Chicago-based retailer.

Daniel McTyeire Sale, a retired Montgomery Ward manager, died of cancer-related respiratory failure Saturday at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. The Pasadena resident was 80. Born in Lakeland, Fla., he skipped his high school graduation and lied about his age to join the Coast Guard during World War II. He escorted naval vessels in the English Channel during the Normandy invasion in 1944. After the war he earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Florida Southern University and belonged to the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.