O Keeffe

Sister Kathleen Mary, 90, grammar school principal Sister Kathleen Mary O'Keeffe, a Franciscan nun and former grammar school principal, died Saturday of respiratory disease at Assisi House, her order's retirement home in Aston, Pa. She was 90. She was a teacher and principal at St. Stephen Parochial School in Bradshaw from 1946 to 1950, and again from 1962 to 1964. She began her career in 1928 at SS. Philip and James in Charles Village and later taught at St. Peter Claver School in West Baltimore and Shrine of the Little Flower in Belair-Edison.

Sister Marie Joyce O'Keeffe, a retired parochial school teacher and official of the Sisters of St. Francis, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Friday at her order's retirement home in Aston, Pa. She was 89. Born Catherine O'Keeffe in Boherbu, County Cork, Ireland, she entered the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia in 1936 and received the name Marie Joyce. She earned a bachelor's degree in education from Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg and had a master's degree from St. Bonaventure University in New York.

Much good can be said about incumbent Councilmen Martin E. "Mike" Curran and Wilbur E. "Bill" Cunningham. Both rank among the City Council's hardest working members.So why does The Sun urge Third District electorate to vote them out Sept. 12?Simply because Kevin O'Keeffe, Linda Janey and Martin O'Malley are free of the burdens of divisive political quarrels of the past. They can work cooperatively, while we seriously question whether the incumbents can. This is important: alienated and isolated councilmen cannot function effectively on the 18-member council.

Vlasta E. Schmidt, 89, restored historic homesVlasta E. Schmidt, a longtime Harford County volunteer who helped restore several historic houses, died in her sleep May 28 at the home of her daughter in Princeton, N.J. She was 89.Mrs. Schmidt lived since the early 1950s at "Sophia's Dowry," an historic Belcamp house that is known for its exquisite paneling and rare double staircase that dates to 1768.She was born Vlasta Dolezal in Czechoslovakia, where she was raised and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Prague.

Alfred Steiglitz almost single-handedly invented modern photography. Before Stieglitz, photography had been an amateur pastime, a commercial business and a sometime scientific tool. After him, it was an art as well. How that happened is the story told by "Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye," the PBS "American Masters" series biography that airs tonight at 10 on channels 22 and 67. Stieglitz, born into a wealthy German-Jewish family in Hoboken, N.J., in 1864, was a phenomenon, a force of nature with a temperament as Napoleonic as his ego. He felt constantly embattled in the "fight" for photography's acceptance as art, which he waged with the relentless, take-no-prisoners determination of a military campaign.

Known as "the button lady," Amalia Amaki scours flea markets for the raw materials of her art. She deploys thousands of buttons in the artful and even scrumptious retrospective of her work that opens today at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington. Among the 73 works in this witty exhibition are more than a dozen boxes and trays of luscious chocolate candies made out of buttons and one dreamy mixed-media coconut cake. Her chocolates not only look edible, they're downright tempting.

The following candidates have received The Evening Sun's endorsement in tomorrow's primary election. Only contested races are list. This list may be taken into the voting booth.MayorKurt L. Schmoke (Democrat)Samuel A. Culotta (Republican)President of City CouncilMary Pat ClarkeComptrollerJoseph T. Landers IIICity Council1st DistrictNicholas C. D'Adamo Jr.John CainPerry Sfikas2nd DistrictAnthony J. AmbridgePeter BeilensonCarl Stokes3rd DistrictKevin O'KeeffeMartin O'MalleyMaegertha Whitaker4th DistrictLawrence BellSheila DixonAgnes Welch5th DistrictVera P. HallIris G. ReevesRochelle "Rikki" Spector6th DistrictArlene B. FisherRodney A. OrangeMelvin L. Stukes

Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art presents "To Conserve a Legacy," an extraordinary selection of American paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and sculpture from the collections of historically black colleges and universities, beginning Saturday. Artists represented include Aaron Douglas, Arthur Dove, Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz.The project, organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art and the Studio Museum of Harlem, was developed to conserve, document and present more than 150 works of art owned by Clark Atlanta University, Fisk University, Hampton University, Howard University, North Carolina Central University and Tuskegee University.

Joan V.A. Kennedy, a retired mortgage lender who had worked in real estate sales, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Sunday at Charlestown Retirement Community. The former Timonium resident was 75. Joan Van Auken was born in Detroit and raised in Cleveland. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1952 from Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio, and was 63 when she earned a master's degree in liberal arts in 1993 from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Mrs. Kennedy had worked as a secretary for several years before earning her real estate license.

Grace Hartigan, the renowned artist and educator who died over the weekend at the age of 86, was a painter's painter. "The thing that's been incredible is that one way or another, I've been able to arrange my life so that I could paint every day," she told The Sun in a 2001 interview. "I have great plans to live as long as Georgia O'Keeffe," she added. Ms. O'Keeffe lived to 98, and Ms. Hartigan said she needed the time because "there's a lot of work I still want to do." Ms. Hartigan was not granted that wish, but what she accomplished over a career spanning more than six decades was little short of astonishing.