Florence Snyder

Pianist, teacher

Services for Florence Snyder, a music teacher who had been a concert pianist under her maiden name, Elaine Frantz, will be held at noon today at Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral establishment, 6010 Reisterstown Road.

Mrs. Snyder, a resident of the Highfield House Condominium on North Charles Street, died Tuesday at Sinai Hospital of congestive heart failure. She was 85.

Her first husband, Louis Vennett, died about 40 years ago. Her second husband, Dr. Nathan Snyder, died about 20 years ago.

She taught piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in the 1950s and continued to teach students privately at her home until her final illness. She had judged student competitions at Peabody and other schools after leaving Peabody's faculty. Earlier, she taught at the Curtis Institute of Music and Temple University in Philadelphia and at the Mannes School of Music in New York.

She appeared in recitals in Europe as well as in this country in the 1930s and 1940s.

Born in Baltimore, she was a Western High School graduate. She won piano scholarships to the Peabody Conservatory and later to the Curtis Institute.

She was awarded a teacher's certificate in 1925 and an artist's diploma in 1926 at the Peabody. She received her bachelor of music degree from Curtis in 1934.

She had been a member of the Baltimore Music Club. Her survivors include a niece, a nephew and several cousins.

The family suggested memorial contributions to the Leonard Frantz Memorial Fund, in care of the Alumni Office of the Curtis Institute. It honors her late brother, who also was a musician.

Raymond H. Gaskin

Restaurateur

Services for Raymond H. Gaskin, a retired restaurant owner, will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Leroy M. and Russell C. Witzke Funeral Home, 1630 Edmondson Ave., Catonsville.

Mr. Gaskin maintained homes in Ocean City and in Lancaster, Pa. He died Monday after a heart attack at his Lancaster home. He was 68.

He retired about four years ago. He had owned and operated the Hacienda Restaurant on Belair Road in the Gardenville area for about eight years. For 10 years before that, he owned Gaskin's Restaurant on Howard Street's Antique Row. He began his career as a restaurant owner in Ellicott City, where he owned a restaurant called Gaskin's for more than 10 years.

Earlier, he was a salesman for Lombard Foods, a restaurant supplier.

The Baltimore native served in the Army during World War II.

He is survived by his wife, the former Helen J. Botzler, and two daughters, Gail K. Williams of Ocean City and Sherry L. $l Ridgeway of Baltimore.

Berta D. Smith

Retired English teacher

A memorial service for Berta D. Smith, a retired high school English teacher, will be held at 1:30 p.m. today at Edenwald, the retirement community at 800 Southerly Road in Towson where she had lived since 1985.

Mrs. Smith died Tuesday at Edenwald after an apparent heart attack. She was 85.

She retired in 1966 from Eastern High School. She had been a teacher in Baltimore for more than 30 years and briefly in Rising Sun.

A native of Wilmington, Del., the former Berta Deussen was reared in Baltimore. She was a graduate of Eastern High School and, in 1928, of Goucher College. She earned a master's degree at Cornell University.

Her husband, Ferdinand C. Smith, a retired Western Electric Co. engineer, died in 1983.

She is survived by two sons, Richard A. Smith of Reston, Va., and Donald H. Smith of Maperville, Ill.; and six grandchildren.

Brian Canby

Fishing enthusiast

Services for Brian Canby, a Severna Park resident who did construction work and had traveled long distances to fish, will be held at 1 p.m. today at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, Ritchie Highway and Cypress Creek Road.

Mr. Canby, who was 24, was killed Saturday in a robbery in West Philadelphia after getting lost while returning from a trip to Atlantic City.

Born in Baltimore, he was reared in Severna Park. He attended Severna Park High School and was a 1984 graduate of Andover High School.

He enjoyed crabbing and fishing, and his enthusiasm for both fresh and saltwater fishing took him as far as Canada and Key West, Fla.

He is survived by his parents, Charles Walter and Mary Ann Canby of Severna Park; a sister, Denise Davidson of Honolulu; a brother, Gregory Steven Canby of Severna Park; a grandfather, Charles O. Canby of Severna Park; a grandmother, Gertrude Polak, also of Severna Park; and a great-grandmother, Lottie Kaszubinski of Millersville.

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H. Lamar Miller

Coppin State student

A Mass of Christian burial for H. Lamar Miller, a student and former therapist, dancer and model, will be offered at noon today at St. Bernardine's Roman Catholic Church, Edmondson Avenue and Mount Holly Street.

Mr. Miller, who was 41 and lived on Wicklow Road in Edmondson Village, died Sunday at St. Agnes Hospital of a respiratory illness.

He had returned to Coppin State College as a psychology major, hoping to complete his interrupted studies for a bachelor's degree. The Baltimore native had graduated from City College.

In the 1970s, he worked as a model, and performed as a modern and ballet dancer in Paris.

He became a rehabilitation counselor for Chimes Inc. in the 1980s and later was a physical therapist at the Key Circle Hospice.

He is survived by his parents, Herbert and Alice Miller of Baltimore; and two sisters, Michelle Pajardo of Columbia and Sharon Turner of Baltimore.

Robert R. Schminke

BG&E; retiree

Robert R. Schminke, a retired electrical distributing equipment operator for the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., died April 5 of cancer at his home in Clearwater, Fla.

He moved to Florida from Mount Airy after his retirement in 1978.

He began working for the Pennsylvania Water and Power Co. in the 1930s, moving to BG&E; after service in the Army Air Forces during World War II.

The native of Richmond, Va., attended St. Christopher's

Preparatory School there and the Polytechnic Institute in Baltimore after his family moved to the city.

His wife, the former Frances Mullins, died in 1990.

He is survived by two daughters, Stephanie Nichols of Clearwater, and Althea Wisner of Baltimore, and a sister, Ann Moran of Berlin.

C7 No services were planned at Mr. Schminke's request.

Jenny Kupersmith

Clerk at Hutzler's

Services for Jenny G. Kupersmith, who had been a sales clerk at Hutzler's downtown store, will be held at 12:30 p.m. today at the Fred P. Groff Funeral Home in Lancaster, Pa.

Mrs. Kupersmith, 98, died Sunday of heart failure in a Lancaster nursing home.

She moved to Lancaster in 1968 after her retirement from the lingerie department at the department store, where she had worked for 20 years.

The former Jenny Goldstein was a native of Baltimore.

Her husband, George Kupersmidt, died in 1918.

She is survived by a daughter, Doris K. Harlem of Lancaster; a sister, Mary Cohn of Baltimore; a grandson; and two great-granddaughters.