Ringgold

Sarah Parker Koppelman Banks, a volunteer and homemaker, died of congestive heart failure March 16 at the Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville, where she lived for the past 14 years. The former Roland Park resident was 91. Born Sarah Parker Koppelman in Baltimore and raised on Millbrook Road in Guilford, she was a 1932 Bryn Mawr School graduate. In 1937 she married William Bradford Banks, a former president of the old Lord Baltimore Press on Eastern Avenue. After the firm was purchased by International Paper Co., they lived in Southbury, Conn.

RINGGOLD, Texas -- Two days after a fierce brushfire swept through this rural cattle town, cinders still smoldered in the ruins yesterday. The air was heavy with the smell of smoke and everywhere there were mangled metal, ash heaps and ugly swaths of black, charred earth. "It came up on us so fast there was nothing to do but get out of the way and watch the town burn," said Kent Hanson, 49, who lost 300 acres of land in the blaze. Here in Ringgold and elsewhere across Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, frequent high winds and a lingering drought have turned bone-dry communities into giant tinderboxes.

On November 6, 2005, KENNETH also known "Britt" or "Pop" devoted husband to Emily Juanita; also survived by a host of other relatives and friends. Friends may call at the family owned MARCH FUNERAL HOME WEST, INC., 4300 Wabash Avenue, on Sunday after 10 A.M., where family will receive friends from 3 to 5 P.M. Services will be held at the above named establishment on Monday at 11 A. M with Funeral to follow at 11:30 A.M. See www.marchfh.com

On October 15, 2005, MARION. She is survived by her 8 children, 19 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren, 5 great-great grandchildren and a host other relatives and friends. Friends may call at the family owned MARCH FUNERAL HOME EAST, 1101 East North Avenue on Wednesday after 8 A.M. The family will receive friends at 1st Apostalic Faith Church, 27 S. Caroline Street on Thursday at 10 A.M. Funeral services will follow at 10:30 A.M. See www.marchfh.com ROBBINS died peacefully at his home in Elkton, MD. Beloved husband of Patricia F. Robbins and father of Lynn Robbins, of Arlington, VA, Elizabeth Robbins, of Annapolis, MD, and Frederick Robbins, of Palo Alto, CA. He is also survived by his brother, Augustus Robbins III, of Chester, VA, and four grandchildren.

On Friday, May 27, 2005, LILLIAN M. RINGGOLD, 88, at her residence in Churchville. A Visitation will be held Wednesday, June 1, 2005, 7 to 9 P.M. and Thursday, June 2, 11 A.M. to 12 P.M. at John Wesley United Methodist Church in Abingdon, MD, where Funeral Services will also be held on Thursday, June 2, 2005 at 12 P.M. Interment will occur at John Wesley United Methodist Church Cemetery. Services provided by Lisa Scott Funeral Home, P.A., 552 Lewis Street, Havre de Grace, MD www.dmvobits.

Geraldine M. Ringgold, a retired city teacher and singer who refused to let a stroke interfere with her lifestyle, died in her sleep Sunday at the Clem & Doll Assisted Living Inc. facility in Randallstown. She was 75. She was born Geraldine Manokey in Philadelphia and as a young child moved to Baltimore, where she was raised by an uncle and aunt in their West Madison Avenue home. "When she was born, she was a 7-month-old preemie. She fought tuberculosis as a child and won," said her daughter, Dr. Sharon D. Harmon, a Baltimore podiatrist.