James B. Osborn

Math teacher, coach

James Bradley "Brad" Osborn, died Tuesday after a heart attack at his home in Bel Air. He was 44.

He had been at Bel Air High for a year. For two years before that, he taught at Harford Technical High School, where he also was athletic director.

He began his teaching career as a substitute teacher in the Baltimore County and Cecil County school systems, and from 1990 to 1991 at North Harford High School.

He began coaching at North Harford in 1986 as an assistant baseball and football coach, and was named junior varsity coach in both sports in 1990.

Before becoming a teacher, he was an assistant manager of Beneficial Finance offices in Baltimore County and a loan officer at the Aberdeen Proving Ground Credit Union.

The Illinois native moved with his family to Aberdeen while in his teens. He graduated from Aberdeen High School, where he played football and baseball.

He graduated from Harford Community College and Towson State University, and served in the Air Force from 1975 to 1977.

Services were to be held at 11 a.m. today at the Howard K. McComas III Funeral Home in Abingdon.

He is survived by his wife, the former Susan A. Clements; a son, Christopher D. Osborn of Bel Air; his father, James P. Osborn of Abingdon; his mother, Charlene F. Osborn of Bel Air; and a sister, Nancy A. Chester of Bel Air.

Stefania T. Ervin

Designed clothing

Stefania T. Ervin, who designed and made women's clothing and owned a Havre de Grace shop that specialized in the woolen clothing of her native Iceland, died Tuesday of cancer at Harford Memorial Hospital. She was 70.

Mrs. Ervin, who had lived in Havre de Grace since 1950, owned the Midnight Sun, which she started in the early 1980s.

She was active in her community and helped persuade the town to furnish space for a teen center, which she operated in the 1960s and 1970s. She had also been a member of the PTAs at Havre de Grace elementary and high schools, and had been a substitute teacher and volunteer at the high school.

She chaired the Goodwill Committee of Soroptimist International Havre de Grace, maintaining contacts with Soroptimist groups in Iceland and Denmark. She also organized entertainment for the Havre de Grace Art Show and headed an annual fashion show.

The former Stefania Torfadottir was born in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland, and reared in Reykjavik, Iceland. The English language major graduated from the University of Iceland after doing part of her studies as an exchange student at Northwestern University.

In 1949, she married Wilbur S. Ervin Jr., a meteorologist who was working in Iceland.

Other survivors include two daughters, Stefania Crum of Oreland, Pa., and Cynthia Height of Havre de Grace; four brothers, Gummindar, Ainar and Gunnar Torfasson and Krisjan Adolphson, all of Iceland; three sisters, Vilborg and Hjorn Torfadottir, both of Iceland, and Kalli Adolphdottir of San Diego; and three grandchildren.

Services were to be held at 11 a.m. today at Havre de Grace United Methodist Church.

Services for Bobbie Lee Mullins Jr., a forklift operator who died Tuesday after being beaten and stabbed at the home of an acquaintance, were planned for 11 a.m. today at the Singleton Funeral Home, 1 Second Ave. S.W., Glen Burnie.

Mr. Mullins, 30, lived on South Port Street in East Baltimore and worked at several warehouses. He was a Patterson High graduate.

He is survived by his wife of seven years, the former Dianna L. Bednarski; a daughter, Samantha L. Mullins; his parents, Cheryl A. and Charles A. Yost; and a brother, John A. Yost. All are of Baltimore. Other survivors include five sisters, Sheri L. Mullins of Raleigh, N.C., Theresa Yost of Airville, Pa., Kandie L. Yost of Baltimore, Stacey L. Yost of Burtonsville and Melissa D. Yost of Taneytown; and his maternal grandparents, Hubert and Loreana Withrow of Glen Burnie.

Jacqueline D. Porter

An artist with a needle

Jacqueline Dorothy Porter, whose hand-embroidered quilts and birds were known from Cape Cod to Baltimore, died May 5 of heart failure at her home in Brewster, Mass. The former resident of the Murray Hill section of Baltimore County was 69.

She had spent summers on Cape Cod since the early 1960s. She and her husband, William H. Porter, settled there permanently in 1980, when he retired after a 33-year teaching career at the Gilman School.

The couple, who had been childhood sweethearts, married in 1945.

"She was a remarkable artist with a needle and thread, and her exquisite quilts and embroidered birds were widely shown and admired," Mr. Porter said.

Mrs. Porter was born in 1925 in New York City. Her mother was Dorothy Benjamin Caruso Ingram, the widow of renowned tenor Enrico Caruso. Her mother divorced her father after a brief marriage.

Mrs. Porter was educated in Europe and in New York, and spent the early days of World War II in France, where her mother was a member of the French underground.

She and her mother escaped from France in 1942 and returned to New York.

Mrs. Porter was active in the Baptist Church Ladies' Aid and the Brewster Ladies' Library for many years.

Other survivors include a son, William H. Porter Jr. of Baltimore; -- two daughters, Dorothy C. Porter-Rowles of Brewster and Romeyn deCastellane of Orleans, Mass.; a sister, Gloria Caruso of Jacksonville, Fla.; and five grandchildren.

Memorial donations may be made to the Brewster Baptist Church, Main Street, Brewster 02631; or the Brewster Ladies' Library, P.O. Box 1815, Brewster 02631.

Graveside services were held Thursday .

Thomas S. Craver

Insurance specialist

Thomas S. Craver, who had worked as a contract specialist for the Maryland Casualty Co., died May 3 at his home in Fallston. He was 27 and had been ill for five years with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

He worked for Maryland Casualty from 1988 until 1991. For the past three years, he owned and operated a computer bulletin board as a hobby.

Born in Seattle and reared in Fallston, he graduated from Fallston High School and, in 1988, from Frostburg State University. He also did graduate work at the University of Baltimore.

He is survived by his mother, Enona Phipps, and stepfather, J. Dean Phipps, both of Fallston; his father, Richard Craver of Philadelphia; a sister, Lori Craver of Belcamp; three stepbrothers, Michael and Christopher Phipps of Joppa and Jack Phipps of Bel Air; and his maternal grandparents, Denver and Muriel Brannon of Abingdon.

Services were held May 5.

William Richardson

Electrical engineer

William R. Richardson, a retired electrical engineer who built his first radio when he was a child, died May 2 after suffering a massive heart attack at his Annapolis home, where he had lived since 1984. He was 69.

The former Ruxton resident retired in 1983 as co-owner of Microtel Inc., a manufacturer of sophisticated electronic equipment used for intelligence gathering. He joined the firm in 1964 after an 18-year career with Bendix Radio in Towson.

"He built from scratch his first radio when he was 11 years old," said his wife, the former Dorothy Jones of Baltimore, whom he married in 1947. "He was one of those lucky people who from day one knew what he wanted to be and what he wanted to do."

He was reared in Guilford and was a 1942 graduate of the Gilman School. He attended Cornell University on an accelerated basis because of World War II and graduated in 1945. He served in the Navy during the closing days of the war aboard a tugboat in the North Atlantic. He was discharged with the rank of lieutenant junior grade in 1946 and returned to Baltimore.

"In 1947, he built a TV to see how it worked," Mrs. Richardson said. "In those days, they used vacuum tubes in television sets that stuck out of the back, and he kept it in a card

board box."

Mr. Richardson was a member of the Elkridge Club but generally eschewed organizational memberships and committee work, said his wife, who described him as a "quiet man."

"His was a nonorganizational kind of kindness and just last [month] he helped an 80-year-old friend take down an aerial," she said.

Other survivors include a son, William R. Richardson Jr. of Annapolis; a daughter, Dorothy Wilton Richardson Messenger of Brownsville, Texas; and two grandchildren.

Services were held May 5.

Paul L. Folkemer

Photo business owner

Paul L. Folkemer, who operated a photographic equipment and supply business for many years and was active in Lutheran Church affairs, died May 2 of heart disease at St. Agnes Hospital. The Linthicum resident was 81.

He retired about five years ago as owner of Folkemer Photo Service in Ellicott City. The business started by his father had earlier been located in West Baltimore.

The Baltimore native graduated from City College and from Gettysburg College in 1934. He later was a member of the college's board of directors.

He had served on the council of Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore, where he had also been a Sunday school teacher and superintendent. He also represented the congregation and later St. John's Lutheran Church in Linthicum at state and national church meetings.

He was also active in the national Lutheran laymen's movement.

A brother, the Rev. Carl W. Folkemer of Linthicum, said of him, "I can't even conceive of him in any business transaction acting other than with the highest principles of honesty and integrity."

Other survivors include his wife of 54 years, the former Ethel M. Tillery; a son, Paul D. Folkemer of Suffern, N.Y.; a daughter, J. Carolyn Burkhead of Ellicott City; two other brothers, the Rev. Lawrence D. Folkemer of Gettysburg, and the Rev. Gordon E. Folkemer of York, Pa.; four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

Memorial donations may be made to the building fund of St John's Lutheran Church.

Services were held May 5.

@

Martha I. White

Towson homemaker

Martha I. White, a homemaker who lived in Towson, died May 4 of heart failure at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She was 85.

Born and reared in Long Green, the daughter of a farmer, the former Martha Isennock was a 1927 graduate of Towson High School.

She met her husband, Alexander J. White, at a dance in Towson, and "their eyes met, and they fell in love," said a daughter, Frances W. Hawks, of Ruxton, recalling the story of her parents' first meeting.

Mrs. White briefly worked as a secretary before marrying Mr. White in 1931. Her husband, a lithographer, retired in 1972 from Universal Lithographers in Cockeysville.

"Her family was the biggest thrill of her life, and she also enjoyed visiting her daughter in Paris," Ms. Hawks said.

In addition to her husband and daughter, survivors include a son, Alexander J. White of Orlando, Fla.; another daughter, Ann W. Girard of Rehoboth Beach, Del.; eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Memorial donations may be made to the American Heart Association, P.O. Box 17025, Baltimore 21203.

Services were private.

Louise D. Randolph

Teacher's aide

Louise Daisy Randolph, a retired teacher's aide and longtime resident of Cherry Hill in South Baltimore, died April 28 of heart failure at Harbor Hospital Center. She was 66.

She was a teacher's aide for 12 years at Patapsco Elementary School and retired in the late 1970s.

"She was a very loving and caring person and everybody just loved her," said school secretary Shirley Lyle-Ward. "And she made sure that the kids here always came first."

Mrs. Randolph was born and reared in West Baltimore and attended city schools. She and her husband, Thomas N. Randolph, a businessman whom she married in 1945, made their home on Carver Road in Cherry Hill for 40 years. Mr. Randolph died in 1990.

She is survived by six sons, Thomas Jr., Larry, Michael, Reginald, Nathaniel and Leroy, all of Baltimore; seven daughters, Margaret Grant, Angela and Delores Randolph, Ella Lynn, Carolyn Brown and Louise Randolph, all of Baltimore, and Donnette Randolph of Glen Burnie; a sister, Margaret Watts of Baltimore; 32 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

Services were held May 3.

Homer E. Turner

McDonogh engineer

Homer E. "Jerry" Turner, a former stationary engineer at the McDonogh School and a former owner of an Owings Mills nursery school and kindergarten, died April 15 of a respiratory illness at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

The Baltimore native, who was 81 and lived in Owings Mills, was a 1931 graduate of McDonogh.

He worked at the school until the mid-1950s, when he and his wife, the former Frances Everhart, started the Happy Acres Nursery School and Kindergarten. They sold the school in the mid-1980s but continued to live in their home on the property.

He was a member of the Pikesville-Randallstown Lions Club, the Freedom Lodge of the Masons, the Scottish Rite and Boumi Temple.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Robert Edwin Turner of Owings Mills and Charles Ernest Turner of Salt Lake City; a sister, Jeannette Leishure of Catonsville; and three grandsons.

A service was held April 30.