Historical November–December 2009 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
We’ll start with baby news this issue. I’m happy to report that Kim & Roo Yawitz of the 61XX block of Westminster (and owners of the Gramophone at 4243 Manchester in the Grove) announced the “big debut” of their first child, Eliza June, on July 3rd.
A big neighborhood welcome goes out to Len and Joyce Banaszak who just moved to the 61XX block of McPherson.
The Banaszaks lived in Ames Place many years ago and are now returning to St. Louis from Minnesota. Len and Joyce are the parents of Mark Banaszak and will no doubt enjoy living on the same street as their son and his family! Over the summer we touched on the travels of many of our neighbors, and it seems these worldly trips have continued. Krister Knapp and Corinna Treitel of the 59xx block of Pershing and their daughter, Isabella, spent six weeks in Berlin and Switzerland this summer. Corinna is a German historian and was tenured and promoted at Washington University this spring. Beth Horner, daughter of Lisa and Bill Horner of the 61XX block of Westminster, is a math teacher at Pius X High School in Festus and now lives in Arnold, but grew up in the neighborhood and went to St. Roch.
This summer, after raising her own funding, Beth took a trip to Ghana.
A service trip sponsored by the Sisters of Loretto, she found out about it as an alum of Nerinx Hall (a Loretto school).
The group flew to Accra, the capital, traveled to Kumasi and lived with host families while doing service work at a couple of schools there.
They did painting, construction and gave other assistance at the schools.
They learned much about the culture of Ghanaian people. Before coming home, they did some sightseeing, spent some time in Cape Coast and toured the “Slave Castle”, an historic site which had been a holding center for captives sold into slavery.
They were excited to be there at the same time as President Obama. Cristina McGroarty of the 61XX block of McPherson announced that she is an “oddity”.
It seems that Cristina had appeared in the old “Our Own Oddities” column in the Post-Dispatch. Cristina Fleener’s (her maiden name) parents were born at the extreme ends of Highway I-55 (New Orleans and Chicago) They married at the eastern extreme of I-70 (Washington DC) and Cristina was born on I-270 which unites I-70 and I-55 It is titled “Interstate Baby” It appeared on December 14, 1975. Cristina was almost two when it appeared.
Her dad (the late Charlie Fleener) was so proud of that column that the clipping hung in his office until he died in 2005. Cristina’s oddity is enjoying a second printing in the recent book.
Another neighborhood oddity in the book was originally sent in by Sue Santen and ran October 9, 1977. At the time, her dad, Art Santen, of the 61XX block of McPherson had over 2000 different bottle openers. Scott Santen wrote in to the new book that Art is still collecting and was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for having collected 32,411 since 1966. Times contributing writer, Ligaya Figueras is now the food columnist for the Ladue News with a weekly column called “Spicy Bits”. Ligaya also continues to write for Sauce Magazine and is a contributing editor for Art Calendar. You can find Ligaya’s articles in many other magazines as well, including St. Louis Magazine and The Writer.
Her interview with St. Louis Cardinal manager Tony LaRussa appeared in the September issues of Vegetarian Times. Dan and Molly Rater of Kingsbury Square both began new jobs in October, too. Dan is a radiographer at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Molly is a Nurse Practitioner in Cardiology for Washington University. Many neighborhood residents remember the Eberle family from the 62XX block of Waterman in Parkview. Sadly, Tina Eberle Gerard, who also lived on the 6000 block of Pershing with her husband Bryan, passed away in October. Our condolences go to Tina’s entire family. And the 6000 block of Westminster is very sad about the recent passing of Rose Shapiro. Rose was a professor of English and writing at Fontbonne University and had studied, lived and worked in St. Louis for many years.
She fought a long illness with grace and great strength and her many friends, many of whom were also neighbors, will miss her dearly. Congratulations to Bob Rice and Anne Faber on their beautiful wedding at St. Roch’s Church. Bob is the son of Rich and Nancy Rice of the 6100 block of Westminster. And best wishes as well to Rachelle L’Ecuyer on her recent marriage to Skip Joseph. Do you have some news to share?
Please send your items to Rachel Boxdorfer at rboxdorfer@ prudentialalliance.com with the subject line “News of Neighbors”. Thank you! Randy and Lauren Vines, residents of the Forest Park Condos on Washington, had their first baby on August 11. Randy and his identical twin brother brought baby Benjamin to the Westminster Block Party on October 10.
Original photograph caption
Eliza June Yawitz. Descriptive caption supplied; photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November–December 2009.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2009_11.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 3.
