News From Home 11 Aug 44 Maryland-North Dakota

MARYLAND

The Navy announced plans to build a 4-million-dollar ordnance laboratory on the Old Bladensburg Road in Prince Georges County. Nearly a million baby chicks burned to death in a $125,000 fire that destroyed the Harry Nock hatchery at Snow Hill. Died at Baltimore: James Keelty, 74, who built more than 6,000 Baltimore homes in the last 40 years, as well as St. Bernadine's Roman Catholic Church, which he gave to the Archdiocese of Baltimore as a memorial to his daughter. Mrs. Eva Dean, a strip-tease dancer at Baltimore's Clover Theater, suffered jaw injuries when she fell off the stage.

MASSACHUSETTS

Bathing was banned at Nantasket Beach for 24 hours while the Army exploded mines in the vicinity. Fire did 1 million dollars damage to the National Chair factory at Roxbury and $30,000 damage to the Pierce Building at Clinton from which firemen rescued six persons. Newton High won the Eastern Massachusetts scholastic baseball title by defeating Medford 3-2. Spring­field Police Chief Gallagher said that 15-year-old William Roach, named; the "most typical American boy" in his junior-high yearbook, had confessed that he gave 14-year-old Carolyn Ben­nett a ride on his bicycle to Forest Park near Springfield and there shot her to death "because she was going out with other boys.” Died: Lawrence's former Mayor Kane.

MICHIGAN

Paw Paw's service honor roll proved too small, so a new one with a capacity of 850 names was built. Local 50 of the United Automobile Workers (CIO) announced an assessment of $1 per member at the Willow Run bomber plant to establish a servicemen's fund of $25,000. Mr. and Mrs. Wil­liam Angell of Detroit gave Kalamazoo College $50,000 to construct a new athletic field. Chester McEachern, St. Clair Shores druggist, was charged with embezzling $7,226 from the Ameri­can Railway Express Company, for which his store was an agency. Pickers and packers were badly needed to handle the largest cherry crop in the history of the Grand Traverse region.

MISSOURI

To meet the need for men, the Frisco Railroad started a six-day training course for brakemen, switchmen and firemen at Kansas City. Charged with murder of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Foltz and their son Ladwin on their Shelby County farm, Raymond Patrick of Monroe City was jailed at Paris. Escaping from a sack in the back of the car, a copperhead snake curled around the neck of Moody Lentz, reptiles curator of the St. Louis Zoo, as Lentz was driving home from a snake-hunting trip in Arkansas; Lentz stopped the car and his companion jumped out and recaptured the snake as it slithered to the running board.

MONTANA

H Gov. Ford will be opposed by J. Thorkelson of Butte for the Republican nomination for gover­nor in the primary election on July 18; candi­dates for the Democratic nomination were Roy Ayers of Lewiston, Leif Erickson of Sidney and A. B. Middleton of Deer Lodge. Charles Gorman became acting postmaster of Havre, succeeding George Wright, who was appointed U. S. marshal. The Rev. D. P. Meagher’s prized fly rod was stolen while he was visiting a Great Falls hos­pital. Sugar-beet fields around Billings were be­ing tilled by 250 German war prisoners.

NEVADA

Ernest Brooks of Washoe County was elected chairman of the Republican State Committee without opposition at the State GOP Convention at Reno. The Navy's 5-millon-dollar auxiliary air station was commissioned at Fallon. At Las Vegas, Mr. and Mrs. Jack McConnell became the parents of a 16-pound boy, their sixth child. After juveniles destroyed $300 worth of electrical fixtures in the recreation center at South Centers and Ryland Streets, Reno, Police Chief Fletcher offered a $25 reward for their arrest.

NEW JERSEY

North Jersey faced a beer drought as 4,000 workers in eight breweries in the Newark area went on strike over the refusal of the manage­ment to guarantee a minimum work week of 40 hours. Sheriff Robert Tipping of Bergen County fired six of his 15 court attendants because they refused to act as jailers during the summer. Four­teen persons were injured when a salute bomb exploded prematurely at an air-raid demonstra­tion in Union Square, Elizabeth. Gov. Edge an­nounced that at least 337,000 of New Jersey's esti­mated 375,000 servicemen and women were al­ready listed to get ballots in the November election.

NEW YORK

Plans were approved by the Queens County Board of Planners for a new race track to be built near Flushing after the war at which all profits will go to war-relief agencies; Col. John Hay (Jock) Whitney is one of the backers. Syracuse barbers began charging 75 cents for haircuts. Albany's Police Chief Fitzpatrick was ac­cused by a special Albany County grand jury of failure to prosecute gamblers in his jurisdiction. Streamlined and enlarged, the Stage Door Can­teen in Times Square reopened after being closed for alterations for five weeks. Snow fell in Olean on June 7.

NORTH CAROLINA

John Dunlap, principal of the Piedmont Junior High School in Charlotte, succeeded Charles Blackburn, retired, as business manager and treasurer of the Charlotte school system. A $150,000 fire destroyed the Bunch furniture store in Statesville. Wilbur Dosher of Wilmington was elected president of the North Carolina Chapter of the National Association of Postmasters. Died;

John Caldwell, city manager of Chapel Hill for the past 12 years. Hiram Grantham, former mayor of Red Springs, in the Highsmith Hospital in Fayetteville.

NORTH DAKOTA

North Dakota crops in general and spring wheat in particular were in excellent condition. Earl Abramson resigned as superintendent of Mohall's public schools. The North Dakota Post War Highway Improvement Association circulated a petition to initiate a measure at the November election calling for issuance of $12,360,000 in state bonds to match Federal funds for a highway program after the war. The Valley City Baptist Church observed its 50th anniversary.

YANK 11 Aug 1944 Down Under Edition