Mary Kate Leming's Blog Posts Tagged 'obituary' (98)

By Emily J. Minor



    SOUTH PALM BEACH — Henry Sullivan “Harry” Cahill, a corporate accountant who retired young and moved to Florida so he could golf every day, died May 4 at home with his wife of 67 years. Mr. Cahill was 98.

“He was a good man,” said Eleanor Cahill, who married Mr.…

By Ron Hayes

    DELRAY BEACH — Edwina Rhodes Charyk, a resident of The Landings since 1985, died peacefully on May 6. She was 87.

    “We had 67 wonderful years together,” said her husband, Joseph V. Charyk, who served as the first director of the National Reconnaissance Office under President Kennedy. “That’s a long time, but also a wonderful collection of years.”

    During her husband’s time in Washington and beyond, Mrs. Charyk was admired for her…

By Ron Hayes



    MANALAPAN — Margaret Cole Kotsko, who loved art, books and fashion, died peacefully at her home in the Little Pond complex on May 19, surrounded by her husband of 56 years, Francis R. Kotsko, and other family members.

    Mrs. Kotsko was 81, and had lived…

Retired Ocean Ridge Town Manager Bill Mathis, who was called back twice to be the town’s top administrator, died May 11 in Belle Glade. He was 79.

Mr. Mathis, whose given name was Delano William Mathis, was a police officer, police chief and town manager in Belle Glade for more than…

Mary Bush addresses the 350 who attended the March 6 memorial service held for her husband and their pastor Ted Bush. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Tim Pallesen

    …

    Writing an obituary is, simultaneously, among the easiest and the hardest assignments any reporter receives.

    Telling the story of a life involves the basic who-what-where-when-and-how that most journalists know is required for news stories. And writing obituaries is a form of news reporting. That makes writing obits a pretty straightforward assignment for experienced reporters like those at The Coastal Star.  

    What makes it especially interesting is the…

Butts, Bobby Dean age 84 of Fenton died Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at Avalon Hospice.  Funeral service will be held 1 pm, Saturday January 26 at Tyrone Memory Gardens Mausoleum, 10260 White Lake Rd. Fenton, MI.  Family will receive visitors from 1-4 and 6-9 pm Friday, January 25 and from 11 until time of…

By Ron Hayes

    BRINY BREEZES — Gertrude Dombroski started spending her winters here in 1953 and became a permanent resident in the early 1980s.

She left, from her own bed, at 6:35 p.m. on Nov. 28, holding her daughter’s hand as I’ll Be Home For Christmas played on the stereo.

She…

By Emily J. Minor

    

OCEAN RIDGE — Henry “Hank” Gribensk, 60, a veteran of the U.S. Army who many years ago used his opportunities in the military to get off drugs and turn his life around, died Dec. 5.

Mr. Gribensk was a well-known and well-loved property manager at two island…

By Cheryl Blackerby

DELRAY BEACH — Carl Smith spent most of his life putting smiles on the faces of those around him.

At Miramar Gardens in Delray Beach, he was known as the easygoing golfer and tennis player whom everyone called “Doc” — the guy with the one-liners about Notre…

By Cheryl Blackerby



    DELRAY BEACH — Elaine Prentice Hapgood found her mission in life more than a half-century ago when she attended an International Planned Parenthood conference in Pakistan. She witnessed firsthand the consequences of unbridled population growth and how important…

By Ron Hayes



GULF STREAM — John E. Searle Jr., a president of The St. Andrew’s Club from 1991 to ’93, died Oct. 30. He was 88 and had owned a villa at the club since 1973.

    “He was very active until six months before his death,” said his daughter, Kip Abbott. “He was…

By Ron Hayes



BRINY BREEZES —  On a Monday morning more than a decade ago, David Blonda was sharing a golf cart with a new resident, collecting aluminum cans for the town’s recycling club.

    “I asked him where he was from,” Blonda recalled, “and he said, ‘A little town you never…

By Emily J. Minor

    

DELRAY BEACH — Jack Hake didn’t have any family. No sisters, no brothers. No aunts and uncles.

    His parents, Paul and Louise, had been dead for years.

    And so, when Mr. Hake died on Oct. 9 — taken to the hospital for the recurring cancer that would eventually…

By Steve Plunkett

Fond recollections and a stirring tribute to the late Mayor William Koch Jr. marked the Gulf Stream Town Commission’s first meeting in the post-Koch era.

Town Attorney John “Skip” Randolph remembered being a “wet behind the ears” lawyer in 1971 and meeting the “somewhat intimidating” mayor.

“It took me a while, but I ultimately learned that Bill Koch’s gruff exterior was just a facade and that his bark was much worse than his bite,”…

By Mary Thurwachter



    BOCA RATON — Ed Morse, who built one of the most respected automobile dealer groups in the country, died of natural causes on June 29.

Mr. Morse, 91, began his automotive career in 1946. At the time of his death, Morse’s company had 15 locations in Florida. He…

By Price Patton



DELRAY BEACH — John Frederick Peart, a soft-spoken and humble Canadian native who moved to Delray Beach in the late 1960s and became a champion and protector of Florida’s fragile shoreline, dunes and the turtles that nested there, died July 1. He was 75.

Mr. Peart…

By Ron Hayes



    BOCA RATON — Try to imagine Boca Raton without any jewelry stores.

    First, you would have to imagine Boca Raton without Joseph Altier.

Today, the city is home to at least 12 prominent jewelers, but when Altier Jewelers opened in 1960, it was the first.   

  …

By Liz Best

    

BOCA RATON — Gene Ehlers will be remembered not only for his professional accomplishments, but also for the way he lived day-to-day: with elegance, dignity, generosity and an ever-present twinkle in his eye.

    “I hope everyone will live the way he did,” his…

By Steve Plunkett

Mayor William Koch Jr., who served as Gulf Stream’s top elected official for more than half his life, has died. He was 91.

Despite being a very public servant, Mayor Koch was a “very private and humble man,” the town said about his June 16 death, noting he was a…