North Baltimore

Isabella J. Stewart, a retired U.S. Customs Service employee and Red Cross volunteer, died Sunday of pneumonia at Howard County General Hospital. She was 90. Isabella Bauer was born in New Orleans and moved with her family to the Baltimore area in 1932. She was a 1935 graduate of Glen Burnie High School. From 1948 until retiring in 1978, Mrs. Stewart was a ship's manifest examiner for customs in Baltimore. Since 1999, the former longtime Towson resident had lived at the Vantage House retirement community in Columbia.

Boots-N-Bangles Bar-B-Cure was the name - and theme - of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation shindig. So, it made sense that the pre-party VIP reception would be held at the digs of local maverick, Ed Hale. Urban cowboys and cowgirls hitched rides on the elevator at the 1st Mariner Bank Tower up to Hale's penthouse home. There, they moseyed through the rooms, bellied up to the ice bar on the terrace, and filed through the kitchen for some fixin's. Of course, there was always that 17th-floor view of the Baltimore harbor to take in. An hour later, it was time to descend to an unfinished floor and join the jeans-clad throng for the main fandango.

Public works director dies George L. Winfield, director of Baltimore's Department of Public Works and a veteran city employee, died after suffering a stroke. Pianist Leon Fleisher honored Peabody Conservatory faculty member and renowned pianist Leon Fleisher was given the Kennedy Center Honors, one of the nation's highest awards for the arts. Long and short of utilities The Public Service Commission predicted shortages and rising electric rates unless partial re-regulation is imposed.

City police detectives are investigating two homicides that occurred within eight hours early yesterday and Wednesday night - the most recent one the fatal shooting of a teenage boy at the Douglass Homes public housing apartments in East Baltimore. About 2:10 a.m. yesterday, Southeastern District officers and Fire Department paramedics were dispatched to the 200 block of N. Dallas Court in East Baltimore's Dunbar-Broadway neighborhood for a report of a "sick person," said Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman.

A North Baltimore man died early yesterday of a gunshot wound he suffered during an attempted robbery near Druid Hill Park, police said.John Charles Williams, 36, of the 400 block of Winston Ave. was approached by an assailant with a handgun about 1 a.m. in the 2200 block of Division St. and was shot in the torso, said Sgt. Scott Rowe, a police spokesman. He was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.Pub Date: 10/18/99

As it celebrated its 150th anniversary yesterday, St. Mary of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church in Govans was packed with an ethnic mix of parishioners far more diverse than the Irish flock it first served.The church at York and Tunbridge roads in North Baltimore, which has survived by keeping its doors open to Baltimore's changing ethnic spectrum, celebrated the occasion with a Mass and parish reception."There's a lot of energy here," said Ronald T. McDade, a hospital administrator and president of St. Mary's parish council who lives on Kenleigh Road.

The Memorial Stadium land game is now in the fourth quarter, and at stake is how North Baltimore's prized piece of real estate will look in the next century -- with or without the storied ballpark's architecture.An 11-member review panel convenes tonight in a closed-door meeting at city planning offices to compare three dramatically different development proposals: a retirement community, a research and technology park and upper-income housing/retail use.The goal, city Planning Director Charles C. Graves III said, is to "figure out a recommendation" to forward to Housing and Community Development Director Daniel P. Henson III, who will have the final say on the matter.

Crafts artist Irena Stein lives by the adage that less is more. For the north Baltimore resident, who recently moved here from San Francisco, a few simple pieces of jewelry and clothing are infinitely more valuable than a crowded house. "I don't like cluttered design in anything," says Stein, 45. "It takes away from beauty and from a sense of design. You end up seeing nothing."Visitors to the ACC Craft Show at the Baltimore Convention Center tomorrow through Sunday can see Stein's cleanly designed pendants, earrings, brooches and cufflinks made of metal and ceramic and finished with crackle glazes.

In Baltimore CityMan fatally shot while sitting in van in North BaltimorePolice were investigating the death of an unidentified man who was fatally shot last night while seated in a van in North Baltimore, police said.Detective Bobby Patton said residents of the 4800 block of Old York Road near Richwood Avenue in Govans heard gunshots about 11 p.m. and called police. Patton said officers found the victim seated behind the wheel of a white, late-model Ford Econovan, his upper body lying across the passenger seat.

What's a city stalwart to do?Houses in certain parts of Baltimore sell within hours. Elsewhere, entire blocks are slated for demolition. There are those who miss a sense of community and history who are returning to the city. But not enough to replace thousands of residents who, according to gloomy numbers recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, are vacating the city.If you're Carolyn O'Keefe, Western High School Class of '74 and urban champion, you start tooting the city's horn any way you can.In 1998, O'Keefe, a 42-year-old free-lance marketing consultant who has helped develop the city's Police Athletic League and is chairwoman for the 1999 Maryland Historical Society Antiques Show, had a brainstorm: Why not produce "I t city life" bumper stickers and distribute them to everyone who, like her, realizes that the city's well-being is crucial to the well-being of the entire metropolitan area.

Heber Brown III, a young pastor from the York Road corridor, could not get to his mother's house on Radnor Road on Thursday night because, at 8:45, Radnor Road became a crime scene. Three men had been shot there, and by 9:15 police officers and detectives with flashlights were all over the place. So Mr. Brown, in a T-shirt and jeans, stood with me on York Road, behind the long streams of yellow police tape slung between street lamps. Mr. Brown, one of the rising leaders in Baltimore's faith community, came from his home a few blocks away with business cards giving his phone number at Pleasant Hope Baptist Church.

Everybody knows that once a bank note has passed through a few hands, it's not the cleanest thing in the world. What you might not know is that, in addition to germs, grime and other visitors, the bills in your wallet probably contain cocaine. Although such traces have been reported in the past, a scientists' group said Monday that cocaine is present in up to 90 percent of the paper money in the United States, particularly in large cities such as Baltimore, Boston and Detroit. The 90 percent figure represents a significant jump from a similar study conducted two years ago. In the earlier survey, 67 percent of U.S. paper money was found to contain traces of cocaine.

2 The first tenants are moving into Miller's Court, a $20 million conversion of a North Baltimore factory building designed to house young teachers and non-profit organizations. "There are so many things about this project that give us a smile each day," said Donald Manekin, who worked alongside his son, Thibault, and his Seawall Development Corp. to develop the project. Manekin said that much of the building will house agencies such as Teach for America, Catholic Charities' foster care and adoption division, the Baltimore Urban Debate League, Wide Angle Youth Media, Building Educated Leaders for Life and the Experience Corps.

Clarence Lee Hollenshade III, whose family's automotive repair and former towing company has been a North Baltimore fixture for 70 years, died Friday of heart failure at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The longtime Towson resident was 82. Mr. Hollenshade, who was known as Lee, was born in Baltimore and raised on Beech Avenue in Hampden. While a student at Loyola High School, he began working for his father, who had established Hollenshade's Texaco at York Road and Burke Avenue in 1939.

What makes the Senator Theatre so special? Why all the fuss when it sounded like it might be shuttered? Why is cash-strapped Baltimore proposing to buy it? Why are people flipping through the memorabilia for sale in the building's lobby and walking away in tears? An awful lot of attention over the past few weeks has been paid to a single struggling business, at a time when businesses everywhere are fighting desperately to stay afloat. Why all the concern over one North Baltimore movie theater that's been an economic basket case for years, that employs just 23 people and sometimes strains to attract even that many paying customers?

H. Mebane Turner now has the time to spend a summer in Ocean City. After nearly four decades in school administration, he's taken off his signature bow tie and put on a sports shirt. Perhaps best known for his many years as University of Baltimore's president, from 1969 to 2002, he recently stepped down after 2 1/2 years in a similar position at Boys' Latin School in North Baltimore. "I made my last alumni call June 30, greeted my successor and left for Ocean City," he said. "I've been taking my son and my step-grandchildren tubing on Assawoman Bay. I've had a home there for 30 years but never had the time to use it for more than 10 days."

A stray kitten that wandered into a North Baltimore backyard this month had rabies, the first city cat or dog found to have the disease in more than 20 years, officials said yesterday. Two people who tried to help the kitten are receiving medical treatment. Others who are concerned that they or their pets may have had contact with the kitten are asked to call the Bureau of Animal Control. The cream-colored male tabby kitten was found in a yard in the 7100 block of Marlborough Drive, near the city-county line, Aug. 5. The kitten, which appeared to be about 4 months old, was wounded on his back and a hind leg, said Bob Anderson, the director of the Animal Control Bureau.

Facing financial pressure, the owner of the Village of Cross Keys shops is seeking a buyer for the upscale North Baltimore retail center at a challenging time. Chicago-based General Growth Properties is looking to sell or find equity partners for several of its 200 properties throughout the nation as it faces looming debt and mortgages that need to be refinanced in the coming months, analysts said. The company told The Wall Street Journal in April that it was trying to pay off $27 billion in debt and was approaching pension funds and life insurance firms as partners.

Raymond C. Bryant, a retired Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. executive and former North Baltimore resident, died Tuesday of leukemia at the Fairhaven retirement community in Sykesville. He was 86. Mr. Bryant was born in Baltimore and raised near Wyman Park. He was a 1940 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and earned a bachelor's degree in business from Loyola College in 1943. He also studied economics at the Johns Hopkins University. During World War II, he served in the Navy in the Pacific and attained the rank of lieutenant commander.

Fashion should be fun, according to Alfred Wainwright. This North Baltimore resident buys clothes that don't just make him smile. He especially enjoys it when his outfit brings a smile to the faces of others. Age: 49 Residence: North Baltimore Job: Baltimore City Public Schools, Instructions Team Associate Self-described style: "Fun. It's positive." The look: Kuhlma Co. white button-down shirt. Brown-striped Pierre Cardin tie. Black, burgundy and beige Giorgio Armani houndstooth sports jacket.