Saleswoman

The Prince George's school board launched a new probe of schools CEO Andre J. Hornsby last night after his girlfriend left an education software company she worked for after its inquiry into the handling of a $40,000 commission paid in a recent sale to the county. LeapFrog SchoolHouse announced yesterday that it is no longer employing Sienna Owens, who was living with Hornsby when he approved the $1 million purchase in June, and another saleswoman, Debora Adam, who was assigned to the sale.

Margaret M. Wilzack, a retired saleswoman from Hutzler's department store on Howard Street, died of a heart attack Monday at a daughter's home in Bel Air. She was 88. Mrs. Wilzack worked in the notions department at Hutzler's for more than 30 years, said her daughter Jane M. Schroeder of Bel Air. Mrs. Wilzack retired in 1981. "She was feisty and outspoken," Mrs. Schroeder said. "She loved the contact with people." Born Margaret Antkowiak, she was raised in Canton, the youngest of 10 children.

Margaret M. Noland, a bookkeeper and saleswoman for the family's boat dealership on Pulaski Highway, died Monday at Oak Crest Village of a degenerative brain disorder. She was 85. Born Margaret M. Rostemeyer and raised in East Baltimore, she was a longtime Rosedale resident before moving to Oak Crest about three years ago. She attended Patterson Park High School but left school about the 10th grade because she had trouble navigating the building after a sledding accident caused her to have a leg amputated, said her sister, Dorothy Newell of Forest Hill.

The Vagabond Players' new season focuses primarily on modern American masters, from Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams to Lerner and Loewe. But as its season opener, the theater has taken a risk on a relative newcomer - a cartoonist/screenwriter/playwright named Doug Stone. It's not a risk that pays off. An account of a suburban Tupperware party in 1968, Stone's Sealed for Freshness is a pretty stale affair. The play begins with a housewife named Bonnie (Debra Tracey) being told by her husband (Steven Michael Kovalic)

Helen Louise Thomas, who sold cosmetics in her Lauraville neighborhood, died of complications from diabetes Jan. 2 at her Northeast Baltimore home. She was 68. Born Helen Louise Murray in Baltimore and raised on Poplar Grove Street, she attended St. Cecilia Parochial School in Walbrook and was a 1953 graduate of Catholic High School. She sold Avon products for 31 years throughout Lauraville. She was a member of St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church, where a funeral Mass was offered Tuesday.

Barbara A. Kral, a retired saleswoman who enjoyed gardening, died of brain cancer Friday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The Severna Park resident was 53. Born Barbara Ann Hooke and raised in Montclair, N.J., she earned a bachelor's degree in interior design in 1972 from what was then Beaver College in Glenside, Pa. She worked for several years as an interior designer before her 1978 marriage to Donald V. Kral, a US Airways pilot who...

Dorothy Brown Smith, a former real estate saleswoman and an avid gardener who once chaired the downtown Flower Mart, died Friday, of complications after a fall, at Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson, where she had lived for 10 years. The longtime Woodbrook resident was 99. Born in Long Green, she graduated from Notre Dame Preparatory School and studied at Goucher College before graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She was married in 1929 to Reginald M. Smith, who died in 1991.

Doris C. Robinson, a former housekeeper, died of a heart attack Friday at her Baltimore home. She was 66. The longtime McCulloh Street resident, previously a saleswoman in a city bookstore, worked for many years as a housekeeper until retiring in 1980 on a medical disability. Miss Robinson was born and raised in Reisterstown, where she graduated from high school. She especially enjoyed preparing Southern-style dishes for her family and friends and working in her flower garden. She liked attending bingo games.

Ida V. Garrettson, 92, store saleswoman Ida V. Garrettson, a retired department store saleswoman and a volunteer, died Saturday of lung cancer at the home of her daughter in Westminster. She was 92 and lived in Randallstown. Ida Virginia Baxter was born in Baltimore. Her parents died when she was 13, and she went to live with friends of her family. She dropped out of Patterson High School at 17 to go to work. In 1935, Mrs. Garrettson started working at the Hecht Co. department store, then known as the Hub, in downtown Baltimore.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - She's slouched way down like a kid bored in class, nearly sliding right onto the floor.This plopped-on-the-sofa posture is surprisingly bourgeois for Diane von Furstenberg - princess, world traveler, '70s wrap-dress creator and bearer of one of the most recognized names on the planet.This is her very last chat - done, kaput, finito - on a wearying two-week jaunt to promote her autobiography, "Diane: A Signature Life," released this month. And she's been back to her hotel just long enough to change into a white cotton Jil Sander shirt ("It's tailored like a man's, but it's cut for a woman")