Upperco

On Saturday March 29, 2003 MARY DOROTHEA of Woodbine, beloved sister of Anna M. Mazziott and the late Erna Feemey; dearest aunt of Anne and husband Thomas Bradford. Funeral services will be held Tuesday April 1, 2003 10 A.M. at BURRIER-QUEEN FUNERAL DIRECTORS P.A. 1212 W. Old Liberty Rd. Winfield, MD. Interment Emory U.M. Church Cemetery Upperco, MD. Contributions may be made to Howard County Hospice 5537 Twin Knolls Road Suite 433 Columbia, MD 21045.www.burrier-queen.com

Just 30 miles northwest of the bustling Inner Harbor is Upperco - what appears to be the epitome of rural America. Vast fields of corn, wheat, barley and soybeans stretch across the horizon, connecting the small, northern Baltimore County communities of Arcadia, Fowblesburg, Boring, Woodensburg and Trenton. Tractors and horse trailers move along the lazy country roads at a long-ago pace, while local farmers sell their produce at roadside markets. It is a land of peace and tranquillity.

Beverly Brooks Solter, a Baltimore County equestrienne who owned a Grand National winner, died Tuesday of cancer at her Upperco farm in Baltimore County. She was 56. Mrs. Solter owned and trained top show ponies, hunters and steeplechase jumpers. Sea Speed, a horse she owned with family members and investors, won the John Rush Streett Memorial Race at My Lady's Manor in 1992 and the Maryland Grand National in 1993. Sea Speed raced under the Old Line Racing Stable. She also owned Sea Wasp, a horse that won many awards, including the American Horse Show Association's championship as a confirmation hunter.

Harry W. Morfoot, 79, owned roller skating rinkHarry W. Morfoot, owner of Sportsman's Hall Roller Skating Center in Upperco, died Thursday of congestive heart failure at Carroll County General Hospital. The Upperco resident was 79.Mr. Morfoot was born in Baltimore and grew up in the Oakenshawe neighborhood. He attended Guilford Elementary School and Roland Park Junior High School.As a young man, he took over his grandfather's farm in Upperco and set up a huckstering route in the city, selling eggs and farm produce from a truck.

A set of main entrance doors at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in the 5300 block of N. Charles St. in North Baltimore were sealed shut with a chain and a bronze cross plaque in a ceremony yesterday to prepare for the millennium Holy Year.The Rev. Lawrence A. Waudby Jr. said the doors -- the ones Pope John Paul II passed through on his visit to Baltimore three years ago -- will remain sealed until Christmas Eve 1999, the start of the Jubilee Holy Year in which the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated.

THE TRADITION OF skating at Sportman's Hall Roller Skating Center begins anew Sept. 11, with a Friday night skate to attract the school-age set.Friday nights have long been the time for teens to meet and roll on the wooden rink in Upperco.The rink is open from 7: 30 p.m. to 10: 30 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $6 plus $1.50 for skate rental. The rental has been the same price for more than a decade, said 78-year-old Harry W. Morfoot, known as the man who spins the top tunes from a booth overlooking the rink.

Baltimore County will receive the largest chunk of money from the state's new Rural Legacy fund to help preserve farms in Upperco and wildlife habitats on the Back River Neck Peninsula, Gov. Parris N. Glendening is scheduled to announce today.County officials, who were told last week about the award, expect $5 million from the $29 million state program, established as part of the Smart Growth initiative to save farmland and open space from suburban sprawl.Other winning proposals came from Howard, Montgomery, Washington, Frederick, Prince George's and St. Mary's, as well as counties on the Eastern Shore, preservation sources say.The governor is scheduled to announce the grant recipients in a series of news conferences beginning today in Montgomery County and in Upperco.

Three people were killed and four others injured Sunday evening when two vehicles crashed head-on near Arcadia in northern Baltimore County about four miles south of the Carroll County line, authorities said.At least one of the victims was trapped in a vehicle and had to be freed by rescuers.Pronounced dead at the scene were the driver of the car, William G. Sheffield, 56, of the 2000 block of Sherryl Ave. and his wife, Evelyn Katherine, 57, both of Eldersburg.Flown by state police MedEvac helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where she died a short time later, was a second passenger in the car, Regina Herrman Murray, 62, also of the 2000 block of Sherryl Ave., and the sister of one of the victims.

A Baltimore County man was sentenced yesterday to four years in jail under a work release program for the Dec. 23 deaths of a man and his sister on the Liberty Dam bridge on Route 26 in Eldersburg.Ronald Henry Fajkowski, 38, of Mount Carmel Road in Uppercopleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of automobile manslaughter and one count of driving while intoxicated, with a 0.16 blood-alcohol reading.Zelia A. Eckhart, 63, and her brother Earl J. Landry, 67, both of Reisterstown, died at the scene when their 1985 Toyota Camry was hit head-on by an eastbound 1994 Ford F-150 pickup truck driven by Fajkowski.