News Of Neighbors

Historical Summer 2013 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

Spring has been a very busy time for many Skinker DeBaliviere residents so let’s get right to the point.

This issue of our news has a lot of exciting stories, big names, and great photos. First of all, we often welcome new businesses (mostly restaurants) to the neighborhood in the Times, but I want to be sure to include some very exciting news that will benefit St. Louis college- bound youth.

The St. Louis Graduates High School to College Center is opening at 618 N. Skinker (the building at the corner of Delmar and Skinker). Washington University has donated the space.

The Center will offer assistance to students over the summer who recently graduated high school and are planning to continue their education, focusing primarily on low-income and/or first generation collegebound students.

All services are free of charge. One of the coordinators of the program is Shauna Cunningham, a resident of the 6000 block of Kingsbury. Shauna also works as a guidance counselor for the St. Louis Public Schools. And the Project Manager, Laura Winter, also has ties to Skinker DeBaliviere as she is married to Willie Winter, who grew up on the 6300 block of Waterman in Parkview and went to school at St. Roch. Faith Sandler, of Scholarship Foundation fame, and resident of the 6000 block of Westminster, is a co-chair and one of the many driving forces behind the project as well. Washington University hosted the Clinton Global Initiative University the first weekend of April.

As part of the program, participants volunteered at the St. Louis Public School’s Gateway Stem High School, giving the school a tremendous facelift and bringing former United States President Bill Clinton, and daughter Chelsea Clinton to the school. Principal of Gateway STEM, Beth Bender, Ph. D., had a full and exciting weekend hosting the volunteers and the Clintons at her school. Beth, a resident of the 6000 block of Kingsbury, has now been invited to attend the Clinton Global Initiative America conference in Chicago in June.

We look forward to hearing about her experience there.

Also in town for the Clinton Global Initiative was Stephen Colbert, host of the Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Not many neighborhood residents realize that the Colbert family lived in Parkview for a time (1955-1960, prior to Stephen being born), when Stephen’s father, James Colbert, Jr. was dean of St. Louis University’s School of Medicine. Stephen Colbert showed up on the evening of Friday, April 11th at his family’s old house on the 6200 block of McPherson, and surprised Sandy and Katie Schenk who now live there. Colbert stayed for about ten minutes, toured the house, and was even text messaging a brother who remembered the house.

Another neighborhood resident, Colette Morton, of the 6100 block of Pershing, also happens to work at Gateway STEM (teaching AP Language and Sophomore English) and was also able to hear President Clinton speak at their school.

But Colette is in our news for a different reason… she was selected from candidates across the country based on her application essay to attend The Florida Humanities Council (FHC) this summer.

The week-long workshop, Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston and her Eatonville Roots, brings educators together with distinguished historians, folklorists, and literary scholars. Kudos go out to St. Louis author and resident of the 6100 block of Kingsbury, Margaret Hermes, who is in the news again.

Her book, Relative S t r a n g e r s , has received second place in the Balcones Fiction Prize c o m p e t i t i o n . Relative Strangers previously won the Doris Bawkin Book Award for Writing By a Woman. And congratulations go out to Rachel Ebeling of the 6300 block of Waterman in Parkview and everyone involved in the Angel Band Project. Their good work with the Angel Band Project continues to draw attention to helping victims of sexual violence through music therapy.

The Ladue News recently recognized The Angel Band Project as the Best New Charity in 2013 and will feature them in an upcoming issue.

They are also in the planning phase of a music therapy program that is set to launch in the spring of 2014. And they also just hosted two benefit concerts in early May; the first at the Sheldon, and the second at the 560 Music Center.

The concert featured Norbert Butz of St. Louis as the headliner.

The charity began after the tragic death of Norbert’s sister Teresa in Seattle.

If you are not familiar with The Angel Band Project, their work, and the music, you should check it out. Not to be forgotten when it comes to talent and news of neighbors, are the youth of the Skinker Debaliviere neighborhood.

They are active and involved in all sorts of things ranging from science to music, television, and the big screen! Leading the way this issue is Anton Guidiswitz of the 6100 block of Washington and a seventh grader at St. Roch, who was recently awarded a blue ribbon at the St. Louis Science Fair for his project titled, “Of Grass and Mulch”.

In addition heard, he earned a special award by one of the event sponsors, MEMC, that included a $200 check to put toward college funding. Daisy Hudspeth made it to the third round of the X Factor auditions in Denver.

She had a great experience and then returned to St. Louis in time to graduate from Webster Groves High School. Daisy is the daughter (and stepdaughter) of Dan and Monique Hudspeth of the 6000 block of McPherson. Congratulations Daisy. News from the same block of McPherson comes from Mary Zabriskie, reporting on son Jack Hart who recently had his name on the big screen at the Tivoli when the credits roled for the indie hit The Place Beyond the Pines. Jack moved to Los Angeles immediately after graduation from the University of Dayton to start work at Electric City Entertainment.

He worked there as an Assistant to movie producer Jamie Patricof. Recently Jack took a new job with Skydance Productions where on his second day on the new job he attended the premiere of the Skydance film Star Trek Into Darkness. Katie and Paul Kurtz of the 6100 block of Kingsbury report that second son Nate graduated from Coe College on Sunday, May 12, with a double major in history and philosophy. He’s traveling to Greece for the rest of May, then joining brothers Jim and Nick for the summer at Camp Mishawaka in Grand Rapids, MN, as counselors.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but that sounds like a perfect summer to me! And an even younger set of neighbors are working on their skiing skills with their mom and dad. Len and Suzanne Knese of the 6100 block of Kingsbury took their daughters Chloe and Isabella to Breckenridge, Colorado for some spring skiing this year. Mom Suzanne reports that the girls really picked up on skiing and that they enjoyed about ten inches of fresh snow while they were there. Finishing up the news of our youth is a young man near and dear to my heart, Christian Boxdorfer, of the 6100 block of Kingsbury. Christian ran his second half marathon on Sunday, April 7th with a time of 2:03:57.

In addition, Christian raised $1,000 for the Foster Care Coalition through the donations of many generous supporters!

As much as I love sharing news, regrettably, there is often sad news to tell as well. And so as I type, I remind myself, we should cherish and focus on the memories of people; celebrate their life, rather than dwell on the loss.

On Friday, March 22nd Skinker DeBaliviere lost an old friend in Charlotte Cunningham. Charlotte lived for years on the 6100 block of Kingsbury with her father, Robert and her aunts Doris and Celestine. Tragically, Charlotte was killed after being hit by a car on Skinker outside The Dorchester where she had lived for many years. Our condolences also go to the family of former neighbor Fredrick McKissack, who had lived for many years with his wife Patricia on the 5800 block of Pershing, who recently passed away. Fred and Pat started their writing careers working from home on Pershing, and they received many national awards for their wonderfully written biographies of AfricanAmerican legends, including “Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?” Also passing recently was Catherine Ellen Fitzmaurice at age 74. Mrs. Fitzmaurice lived with her husband Leo on the 6300 block of Waterman in Parkview for much of the 80’s and 90’s with their five children. Our condolences go out to the entire family. Congratulations to the St. Louis Police Department 7th District Officer of the Year, Kelli Swinton, and welcome to our new 7th District Captain Gwendolyn Spicer – two of the women making St. Louis’ Finest even better! And ending on a happier note, as the summer weather kicks in, it is probably getting to be block party weather, so enjoy those parties, and please, send us some photos of your festivities.

I know the 6000 and 6100 blocks of McPherson has set a hot date for their party on Saturday, July 13. Better have those sprinklers running for the kids! And organizers encourage others from the neighborhood to stop by and enjoy the fun too! Do you have news to share?

Please send your submissions via email with the subject line News of Neighbors to rachelb@sdtimes.org or drop off a note to the attention of Rachel Boxdorfer at the Skinker DeBaliviere office. Be sure to mark it “News of Neighbors”.

Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2013.

Read this article in the original newspaper issue.

Archival transcription note: Printed Friday April 11 is Thursday in 2013. Doris Bawkin and Anton Guidiswitz source spellings retained; no author identity inference.

Original source: SD_Times2013_06.pdf, printed page(s) 4, 5; PDF page(s) 4, 5.