Youngblood

On March 27, 2004, WILLIAM CHARLES COLLURAFICI; beloved husband of the late Patricia Collurafici; devoted father of Barbara Cunnigham and her husband Charles, Patsy Hoffman and her husband Gene and Lena Youngblood and her husband Glenn; loving grandfather of Jocelyn and Devon Hoffman, Curty and Billy Cunnigham and Brittany and Lyle Youngblood; dear brother of James Collurafici and Lena De Graw. Relatives and friends may gather at Miller-Dippel Funeral Home, Inc., 6415 Belair Road, on Tuesday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M., where a service will be held at 8 P.M. Interment private.

TAMPA, Fla. - The wait is finally over for Nick Buoniconti, Lynn Swann and Ron Yary. Buoniconti, Swann and Yary joined Marv Levy, Mike Munchak, Jackie Slater and Jack Youngblood as the Class of 2001 inductees to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it was announced yesterday. Buoniconti, a linebacker who spent half his 14-year career with the Miami Dolphins, had waited 20 years to be chosen by the Hall's 38-member selection committee and joined a group of 14 finalists as a nominee of the Seniors Committee.

NEW YORK -- For hundreds of years, millions of blacks were captured in Africa and forced to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, where they became slaves.Early yesterday morning, more than 1,000 black descendants of those slaves made a symbolic trip from St. Paul Community Baptist Church in East New York, Brooklyn, to the shores of that same ocean to pay homage to their ancestors, as part of a religious remembrance of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.The travelers arrived on the beaches of the Rockaway peninsula about 4 a.m. for a sunrise service led by the Rev. Johnny Ray Youngblood, the pastor of St. Paul, who organized the tribute, which is held every year.

Even if "Jitney" weren't a good play, it would be an important one -- the first play Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson wrote in his decade-by-decade chronicle of 20th-century African-American life.But "Jitney" is a very good play, and I won't be surprised if director Marion McClinton's production is the runaway hit of the Center Stage season. Set in the 1970s, when Wilson wrote the initial script, the play takes place in a jitney -- or gypsy cab -- station in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, the same neighborhood that is home to most of Wilson's plays.

"Positive Involvement: How to Teach Your Child Habits for School Success" by Jack and Marsha Youngblood. BrownWood Press, 1995; $14.95 (includes shipping; call 800-283-1087).Parents are their child's first teachers. Becoming positively involved in their child's schoolwork is one of the most important decisions parents will make in ensuring a child's success. Moreover, research shows that children want their parents to help them direct their lives.In their book "Positive Involvement," education experts Jack and Marsha Youngblood provide the crucial link for parents between what they have forgotten from their early parenting skills and what they want to learn about fostering their child's good study and work habits.

CHESTERTOWN -- "It really is a room of one's own," says Kelli Youngblood as she leans across a desk strewn with her poems to look out of the garret room's only window.The Virginia Woolf reference is deft and deliberate. Youngblood is a 22-year-old poet and student of literature who will graduate from Washington College in Chestertown on Sunday. She is also one of the candidates for the Sophie Kerr Prize, an annual cash award the school gives to a graduating senior who shows literary promise.

Names in the newsPowers Smith Ltd.,an Annapolis interior design firm, has won two Best in American Living awards from the National Association of Home Builders. The firm was awarded "Best One-of-a-Kind Custom Home over 4,000 Square Feet" for the mid-Atlantic region and the merit award for the nation.Janet W. Lehmanhas joined the Annapolis office of Weichert Realtors. She has a master's degree in education from the University of Maryland.Robert F. Youngblood has been appointed executive director of the Greater Annapolis Chamber of Commerce.

ROB YOUNGBLOOD is not a household name. But in May, when the 6-foot-4 South Carolinian assumes his duties as the new executive director of the Greater Annapolis Chamber of Commerce, he should not be difficult to miss.The 38-year-old Mr. Youngblood, who currently is vice president of operations for the Rock Hill (S.C.) Area Chamber of Commerce, will arrive here at a time when many new faces have appeared on the Anne Arundel development scene. Just a few months ago, Susan Zellers, 36, became the new economic development director for Annapolis, one of the highest-profile jobs in the city.

Do you love figure skating but are sick of the Tonya-Nancy soap opera? Depressed that we don't stand a chance in hockey? Are 35 skiing events still not enough for you?Have no fear. Thanks to the wonders of the VCR, you can watch winter Olympics or winter sports any time you want. Just wander into your neighborhood video store and check out these films.* "The Cutting Edge" covers both his-and-hers Olympic skating. D. B. Sweeney is an injured hockey star who teams up with a difficult figure skater (Moira Kelly)

UPON THIS ROCK:THE MIRACLESOF A BLACK CHURCH.Samuel G. Freedman.HarperCollins.384 pages. $22.50.Toward the end of "Upon This Rock," a book about a black Baptist congregation in Brooklyn, N.Y., Samuel G. Freedman describes a 1981 meeting between leaders of a church-based community group and local political leaders. The group, modeled on Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation (which inspired BUILD, a similar organization, in Baltimore), wanted to see if the politicos shared their agenda for community revitalization.