Dash Between: Pat Mason Beattie, advocate for the blind

Pat Beattie, who began losing her eyesight to Stargardt's disease (a type of juvenile macular degeneration) at a young age, coordinated development of and access to programs and services that helped others who were blind or nearly blind.

Over the years, she served as president of the Council of Citizens with Low Vision International, treasurer for the American Council of the Blind and director of public policy and consumer relations with the National Industries for the Blind.

As a teenager in the 1950s, she became a columnist for her hometown newspaper, the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, and went on to cover labor and business.

As a newlywed in the 1960s, she worked for U.S. foreign service agencies in countries where her husband handled assignments for International Telephone and Telegraph.

Pat lived in Toledo, Ohio, before moving to the Washington, D.C., area and beginning her work with the blind on a national level in the early 1980s.

Read about "The Dash Between" May 14, 1936, when she was born Patricia Mason in Elyria, Ohio, and Feb. 10, 2010, when she died in Alexandria, Va., at age 73, in the April 18, 2010, edition of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.

Dash Between: Charlie Kurtz, WWII veteran, Silver Star recipient

In 1944, George Patton, the legendary World War II general, awarded Charlie Kurtz the Silver Star for heroic actions during the Battle of St. Lo, France.

Charlie left the battlefield early, taking home the Silver Star, the Purple Heart and what remained of his wrist from a German shell explosion near Flavigny, France.

Read about "The Dash Between" May 7, 1923, when Charlie was born Charles E. Marino in Chicago, and March 5, 2010, when the Chatham Township, Ohio, farmer and former resident of Lakewood, Ohio, died at the Medina (Ohio) Village Retirement Community at age 86, in a story published the Medina County Gazette on Monday, April 5, 2010.


Here are some photos showing Charlie at various phases in his life plus this 1952 photo of his aunt, Marie Sly, with several W. W. Sly Co. employees. She took over operations of the company after her husband, Wilfred C. Sly, was killed by payroll robbers on Dec. 31, 1920.

The murder of her husband is often cited in histories of crime in Cleveland. Read Dan Chabek's account on Lakewood Lore Online.


Charlie Kurtz farmed in Chatham Township, Ohio, for 40 years.

In his later years, Charlie and his wife, Polly, took up tap dancing and performed for audiences at nursing homes and festivals.

Below: Rose Marie Toolis and Charles E. Kurtz had this photo taken in the late 1940s to announce their upcoming wedding.


Charlie Kurtz, far right, owned, bred, boarded and trained horses for harness racing, including Greenacres Johnny, shown after winning a race at Scioto Downs in this 1983 Barry E. Conrad photo.

This "Dash Between" column was published on ObitsOhio.com on April 6, 2010.

Carol Fankhauser, 60, first-grade teacher with neon-green thumb

Teaching first-graders robbed Carol Fankhauser of the ability to say “left” or “right” when giving directions, according to her friend, Kellie Johnston.

Fankhauser, who retired from Copopa Elementary School in Columbia Station, Ohio, "had to point,” said Johnston, who teaches in the Buckeye Local Schools in Medina County, Ohio. “When she wanted (her pupils) to raise a left hand, she would raise her right in mirror image.”

After retiring from teaching, Fankhauser took a job as a "grower" at the Maria Gardens greenhouse in Strongsville, Ohio.

"She always had a green thumb," her daughter, Heather, said. "It was like neon."

"The Dash Between" May 31, 1949, when the former Carol Street was born in Lorain, and March 6, 2010, when the teacher known as Mrs. Fankhauser died at age 60, is featured in the April 4, 2010, edition of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.

For the full story, click here.

To recommend people for “The Dash Between” obit features for the Elyria Chronicle, Medina County Gazette, ObitsOhio.com or other print or online publications, contact Alana Baranick at abaranick@gmail.com or 216-862-2617.

This "Dash Between" column was originally posted on ObitsOhio.com on April 4, 2010.

Jessie Root, 95, of Avon, sold real estate, co-owned greenhouse

Jessie M. Root, who died March 22, 2010, at age 95, sold residential and commercial real estate in communities along Ohio's North Coast for decades.

She also had handled office duties for the greenhouse in Avon, Ohio, which she and her husband, Frank, had owned until retiring in 1978. Frank died in 2006.

Jessie, a former member of the Avon Board of Education, served on a citizens committee that installed lights at the Avon High School football field.

She was born Jessie Mittelstead in Cleveland, Ohio, and lived in Avon since childhood.

The Avon High School graduate attended what was then Bowling Green University before getting married.

Condolences and more: David Bogner Family Funeral Home of North Ridgeville, Ohio.

This item was posted originally on ObitsOhio.com on April 4, 2010.

Lenore Eastin Wayman's 'Dash Between' looks at TB clinic

Lenore Eastin Wayman, the subject of "The Dash Between" that ran in the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram on March 21, 2010, retired in 1981 as administrator for the Lorain County (Ohio) Tuberculosis Clinic.

Lenore, whose Dash fell between her birth in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on April 28, 1919, and Feb. 22, 2010, when she died at Wesleyan Village in Elyria at age 90, began working at the clinic when it was located at Pleasant View Sanatorium in Amherst, Ohio, before it was moved to the Lorain County Health Building in Elyria, Ohio.

I included a little information about how treatment of TB patients had changed during Lenore's lifetime. Here's more you might like to know.

Chronicle-Telegram columnist Connie Davis once wrote, “I'm told Lorain County had a high incidence of tuberculosis because of the sandstone quarries here. Silica dust inhaled by quarry workers damaged lungs.”

Pleasant View opened on the southeast corner of Leavitt Road (Ohio Route 58) and NorthRidge Road in Amherst in the early 1930s. It became home to large numbers of TB patients who required long-term isolation before advances in medical treatment allowed for out-patient care.

When Lenore began working as a clerk-typist at the newly established clinic at Pleasant View in 1964, the number of residents had been dwindling.

By 1967, the handful of remaining TB patients had been transferred from Pleasant View to Richland County Hospital in Mansfield, Ohio.

Residents of the former (Lorain) County Home for the aged and infirmed were moved from Elyria to the vacated Amherst sanatorium, newly christened Golden Acres Nursing Home.

All out-patient services and TB testing continued to be conducted at the Amherst facility until the clinic was moved to the new county health building on Murray Ridge Road.

To read Lenore's "Dash" from the Chronicle, click here.

To recommend people for “The Dash Between” obit features for the Elyria Chronicle, Medina County Gazette, ObitsOhio.com or other print or online publications, contact Alana Baranick at abaranick@gmail.com or 216-862-2617.

This "Dash Between" column was posted originally on ObitsOhio.com on March 22, 2010.

William F. Hickey, 83, of Bay Village, Press Club of Cleveland Hall of Fame inductee

William F. Hickey, who died March 19, 2010, at age 83, served as television and radio critic, sports columnist and copy editor during his 36 years with the Cleveland Plain Dealer before retiring in 1998.

He was inducted into the Press Club of Cleveland Hall of Fame and won a National Headliner award for his columns.

Bill Hickey, a resident of Bay Village, Ohio, wrote or co-wrote such books as "Irish Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland" and "The community of St. Raphael celebrates our walk in faith, 1946-1996."

For the obituary written by the Plain Dealer's Grant Segall, click here.

Calling hours will take place from 2-8 p.m. Monday, March 22, 2010, at McGorray-Hanna Funeral Home of Westlake, 25620 Center Ridge Rd. (W. Of Columbia), Westlake, Ohio.

Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 23, 2010, at St. Raphael Church, 525 Dover Center Rd., Bay Village 44140.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Raphael Scholarship Fund in care of the church or to the Joan Hickey Campus Ministry Fund at Magnificat High School, 20770 Hilliard Blvd., Rocky River, OH 44116.

Condolences and more: www.mcgorray.com

This obit was originally posted on ObitsOhio.com on March 20, 2010.

Honey Zimmerman, 71, of Macedonia, Tamburitza hall of famer

Honey Zimmerman, 71, of Macedonia, Ohio, a bugarija player who died of complications from ovarian cancer March 5, 2010, performed in tambura orchestras since childhood.

She played with her family's Trivanovich Sisters Orchestra, the Seceri Orchestra and Šarena Tamburitza Orchestra.

Honey was inducted into the Tamburitza Hall of Fame in 2008.

For more about her life, visit the Šarena website or read the obituary or death notice from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

This item was posted originally on ObitsOhio.com on March 11, 2010.