Vernon

Mt. Vernon completely lacks adequate parking for residents. Every night around 6 p.m., due to lack of residential parking, I park at a meter on Charles Street. And every morning I get up at 7:45 a.m. to move my car from the metered spot to a residential spot - unless, of course, there are no residential spots available, which is often. The parking enforcement officers rarely ticket anyone who parks in the residential areas for more than two hours, but they aggressively ticket meters in the morning between 8:30 a.m. and 9:15 a.m. I know this because I just put my residential parking permit on my car last week.

Helen Bruce Thomas, a retired nurse and homemaker, died April 23 at the Rogerson House assisted-living facility in Boston of unknown causes. The longtime resident of Phoenix, Baltimore County, was 89. Born Helen Whitridge Bruce in Baltimore, she was the daughter of Albert Cabell Bruce, a businessman, and Helen Whitridge Bruce, a homemaker. She was raised in Guilford on Charlcote Road. She attended the Calvert and Bryn Mawr schools before graduating from the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Va., where she rode horses.

On January 22, 2005, VERNON De VINNEY, beloved husband of Jan De Vinney, devoted father of Kevin and his wife Kelly, Lisa Penni and grandfather of Breese De Vinney Remembrances in his name may be made to Baltimore School for the Arts, Theater Department, 712 Cathedral St., Baltimore, MD 21201

Carolyn Marie Hauck, a retired Enoch Pratt Free Library staff member who encouraged patrons to explore films and the arts, died of dementia complications at the Pickersgill Retirement Community. The longtime Mount Vernon resident was 89. Born in Anderson, Ohio, she was the daughter of Carroll E. and Marie Hauck. She earned a bachelor's degree in art from Miami University in Miami, Ohio, and had a master's degree in library science from Western Reserve University. She moved to Baltimore in 1954 and joined the central Pratt Library.

On Tuesday, March 3, 2007 VERNON. Friends may call at the family owned MARCH FUNERAL HOME WEST, INC., 4300 Wabash Avenue on Wednesday after 8:30 a.m. where the family will receive friends on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Funeral services will follow at 12:00 p.m.

On April 21, 2003, VERNON W. SMITH dear brother of Robert C. Smith and the late Roland Smith, Naomi Smith, Catherine Culp and Eleanor McNicholas. Also survived by many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grand-nephews. A funeral service will be held at the family owned Ruck Towson Funeral Home, Inc., 1050 York Road (beltway exit 26A) on Saturday at 11 A.M. Interment Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. Friends may call on Friday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 P.M.

Suddenly on May 6, 2003, DAVID LEE VERNON, son of Mark David Vernon and Carol Elaine Randall. Brother of Christopher Michael Vernon and Shawn Edward Vernon. Services and Interment private. Arrangements by Slack Funeral Home, P.A., 410-465-4400.

On January 17, 2007, VERNON FRANKLIN MONROE. Memorial Service will be held January 24, 2007 at 6pm in the Howell Funeral Home Chapel, 4602 Liberty Heights Ave.

As many times as it rolls around, I never outgrow the FlowerMart, which opened Friday and runs through Saturday. It's held in May and timed to take advantage of the best part of Maryland's spring. Any event that draws so many families, especially babies in strollers, mothers and grandmothers, to a hallowed Baltimore neighborhood gets my vote, even if, truth be told, I am not much of crab cake fancier. Mount Vernon has long fascinated me. I was not long free of those baby carriages when I was taken along Charles Street and spied an exotic retail mix of first-floor and basement-level shops selling old maps, rare clocks, books, antiques or other items not found at Woolworth's.

George's, the restaurant at the Wyndham Peabody Court Hotel in Mount Vernon, is a sleeper. It hasn't completely shrugged off its hotel-amenity feeling, but it's getting there. George's is making an effort to reach out. There's a good sampling on the beer list of local brews. George's runs smart specials, available both at the bar and in the dining room, like a Monday burger night and a $12 Wednesday comfort-food entree. Still, on a few weeknight visits, there was more action at the bar. And credit a game bar staff with patiently and steadily building a base of neighborhood regulars, who have started coming in for dinner, too, and bringing their friends.

Dr. Franz Xavier Groll, a retired physician who lived and practiced on Eager Street in downtown Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood, died of pulmonary thrombosis April 2 at Keswick Multi-Care Center. He was 95. Born in Aalen in Germany, he was the son of a forest manager who was also a gamekeeper. He grew up at the time of Adolf Hitler's rise and was a member of the German Youth Movement. He studied medicine at the Ruprecht-Karl University of Heidelberg and served in the German army as a combat physician attached to a Panzer division.

House hunters searching for an in-town, historic mansion in Mount Vernon, the heart of Baltimore's cultural center, need look no further than 514 Cathedral Street. The address is home to a 9,000-square-foot town house lovingly restored over the last eight years by its owner, Drew Rieger. Dating to 1847, the six-level, elegant home was once the residence of a commander of the Civil War. "It's the only house in Mount Vernon that has been restored back to its original 1840s floor plan," Rieger said.

My Thai's first run wasn't very long - just over three years - but its good, clean Thai food found a following. When its first home was destroyed by a fire in December 2010, we wondered when and where the owners, Varattaya "Pui" and Brad Wales, would return. My Thai is back, and it's got a few things extra. Now located in the Tack Factory, on the edge of Little Italy, My Thai has almost twice as much floor space to work with as it did when it occupied the basement level of Mount Vernon's Park Plaza Building.

Vernon E. Seibert, a former athletic director and coach at Glenelg High School who had been an outstanding football player during the 1940s at College Park, died Saturday of cancer at Union Hospital in Elkton. The longtime Columbia resident was 88. "You could write a book about Vernon Seibert. What a character. The stories about him are legend," said Dennis P. Cole, who was head football coach at Glenelg in the 1980s and retired five years ago. "He was always held in high esteem but was not the kind of buddy-buddy type of football coach when it came to the kids," he said.

The Rev. Vernon Dobson, a Baptist minister and civil rights leader, died Saturday of complications of a stroke. He was 89. As a leading figure in Baltimore's civil rights movement, Mr. Dobson lived a life molded by the struggle for equality — a struggle he continued into his last years — and as a pastor who believed that the church should play an important part in the fight. Campaigning took a hold on Mr. Dobson's life early on. Talking to The Baltimore Sun in 1998, he described demonstrating against segregation as a young child with his mother in the 1930s.