Gladys Ophilder Johnson, 82, registered nurse
Gladys Ophilder Johnson, a retired registered nurse who had worked for a Baltimore physician for 20 years, died Monday of gastrointestinal bleeding at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She was 82.
Until retiring in 1968, Mrs. Johnson worked for Dr. Louis J. Glass, assisting him with delivering babies for 20 years. Earlier, she had worked as a midwife and nurse for 10 years.
Born Gladys Ophilder Jones in Oyster, Va., she attended schools there. She later moved to Baltimore, where she earned a degree in nursing.
A resident of Centreville in Queen Anne's County since 1991, she had lived in Baltimore and Philadelphia. She was married in 1974 to Joseph G. Johnson, who died in 1995.
She was a member of Faith Unity Fellowship Ministries Worldwide, 31850 Millington Road, Millington, Kent County, where services will be held at 1 p.m. today.
She is survived by a brother, Alvin Griffin of Grasonville; nephews and nieces; and an adopted son, Gregory "Buzz" James of Baltimore. Her son, Lawrence Jones, died in 1998.
Bessie Caplan, 97, homemaker, bookkeeper
Bessie Goldenberg Caplan, homemaker and former bookkeeper for a Baltimore department store chain, died Wednesday in her sleep at her home in Baltimore. She was 97.
Mrs. Caplan had started working as a teen-ager at Goldenberg's Bargain House on South Broadway in Fells Point. The store had been established in 1913 by her father, Aaron Goldenberg, an immigrant from Bessarabia.
She managed the store's bookkeeping department and helped pioneer its discount-retail concept that made available low-cost goods to its customers, many of whom were recent immigrants.
"The stores were famous for their counters and tables loaded with merchandise -- spools of thread, cards of straight pins and memo books -- priced at 4 to 8 cents. 'Oceans of Notions,' said the signs," reported The Evening Sun in a 1992 article.
Goldenberg's, which at its height had 10 stores in the Baltimore area, closed after declaring bankruptcy in 1992.
Bessie Goldenberg was born in Philadelphia and raised in Fells Point. She was educated in Baltimore public schools. She was married in 1921 to Emanuel Caplan, who died in 1965.
She enjoyed doing needlework and crocheting.
Mrs. Caplan was a member of Oheb Shalom congregation.
Services were private.
She is survived by a son, Alvin G. Caplan of Baltimore; a daughter, Jacqueline Eliasberg of Baltimore; a sister, Florence G. Pierce of Baltimore; seven grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
James K. Nolte Sr., 78, Bendix Radio estimator
James K. Nolte Sr., a World War II veteran and retired Bendix Radio Corp. estimator, died Wednesday of heart failure at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 78 and lived in Timonium.
Mr. Nolte retired in 1975 from Bendix Radio Corp. in Towson, where he had been a government contract estimator for 27 years.
Mr. Nolte, who was born and raised in Baltimore's Pimlico section, enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942. He earned his GED while serving with the Marines as an aviation mechanic on Midway in the Pacific Theater of operations. He was discharged with the rank of sergeant at war's end.
After returning to Baltimore, he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Baltimore.
He enjoyed collecting American coins and golfing.
Mr. Nolte was a parishioner of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, 101 Church Lane, in Texas, Baltimore County, where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 1 p.m. today.
He is survived by his wife of 46 years, the former Eleanor Harr; two sons, James K. Nolte Jr. and Thomas A. Nolte, both of Timonium; a daughter, Veronica Nolte Cummings of Cockeysville; two grandchildren; and several nephews and nieces.
William F. Spence Sr., 83, Goodyear service manager
William Franklin Spence Sr., who managed Goodyear Auto Service Centers in New Jersey and Maryland, died Wednesday of cancer and kidney failure at Charlestown Community in Catonsville. He was 83.
The former Ellicott City resident, who had lived at the retirement community since 1997, had retired in 1978 from Goodyear Tire Co., owners of Goodyear Auto Service Centers.
He began his career during the 1940s. At the time of his retirement, he was managing the company's Catonsville center on Route 40.
Born and raised on Wilkens Avenue, he was a 1936 graduate of City College and attended Strayer Business College.
During World War II, he served with the Navy in the Pacific and was discharged in 1945 with the rank of yeoman.
He enjoyed golfing and playing bridge.
Mr. Spence was a communicant of St. John's Episcopal Church, 9120 Frederick Road, Ellicott City, where a memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Monday.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, the former Martha Elizabeth Todd; two sons, William F. Spence Jr. of Glenwood and Todd Spence of Relay; a daughter, Lisa Meeder of Columbia; a brother, H. Braden Spence Jr. of Dunedin, Fla.; and eight grandchildren.
Frank L. Stoup Jr., 74, owned tool and die firm
Frank Linwood Stoup Jr., owner of a tool and die company, died Sunday from complications of an aneurism at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in downtown Baltimore. He was 74 and lived in Crownsville.
In the early 1950s he founded Maryland Tool and Die Co. on Light Street in downtown Baltimore, a business now located in South Baltimore on Clarkson Street.
He transformed design concepts into metal for local inventors and engineers. He also repaired coin stamping dies used by the Department of the Treasury.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton, he was a graduate of Samuel Gompers Vocational School at North Avenue and Broadway.
In 1945 he joined the Navy and served aboard the aircraft carrier Roosevelt in the Pacific.
In 1950, he married Eileen Margaret Brockschmidt. She died in 1979.
Funeral services were held yesterday in Brooklyn.
He is survived by a son, Frank Linwood Stoup III of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; a daughter, Janet Stoup of Crownsville; three sisters, June Posey of Perry Hall, Kathleen Strebeck of Essex and Betty Boniol of Hanover, Pa.; and six grandchildren.
Elsewhere
Rowland Evans, 79, a syndicated columnist and longtime CNN host known for a courtly but direct manner that sometimes caught his guests off guard, died yesterday at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington of cancer.
Mr. Evans was one half of the print and television duo that included Robert Novak, another columnist and longtime CNN host. The two were hosts for a political interview show on CNN called "Evans & Novak" for nearly 20 years. In June 1998, the Wall Street Journal's Al Hunt and syndicated columnist Mark Shields joined the program. The show was then renamed "Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields."
The Evans-Novak relationship, which pitted the two as good-natured but independent-minded conservatives who didn't always agree, began in 1963 with a joint political column titled "Inside Report." At the time, Mr. Novak was a congressional correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. At the peak of its popularity, the column appeared in 300 newspapers throughout the country.
Chung Ju-yung, 86, founder of Hyundai Motor Co. and a symbol of South Korea's economic recovery in the aftermath of war and the cronyism that accompanied it, died Wednesday of pneunomia in Seoul.
Born into a poor farming family in what is now North Korea in 1915, Mr. Chung got his start in business by selling his father's cow, running away with the money and selling rice from a bicycle in Seoul.
William "Scotty" Scott, 81, a former Northwest Airlines pilot whose plane was hijacked by "D. B. Cooper," died March 11 of prostate cancer in Green Valley, Ariz.
He and his crew were flying a Boeing 727 when they were hijacked Nov. 24, 1971. A passenger named Dan Cooper, later mistakenly identified as D. B. Cooper, boarded the airplane in Portland, Ore. En route to Seattle, the man handed a ransom note to a cabin attendant, threatening to detonate a bomb unless he got $200,000 and four parachutes.
Nearly everyone got off the plane in Seattle, where Mr. Cooper collected the ransom. He then ordered Mr. Scott to fly to Mexico. Mr. Cooper parachuted from the plane over Washington state and was never heard from again.
Isao Okawa, 74, who was credited with expanding Sega's video game business only to see it fall behind rivals Sony and Nintendo, died March 16 of heart failure in Tokyo.