News Of Neighbors

Historical February–March 2016 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.

Happy New Year neighbors!

It is nearly impossible for this writer to believe that it is 2016.

I hope your families enjoyed the holidays and are already enjoying the journey of this new year.

We start our year of News of Neighbors with a rather ironic story of some of our youngest and very talented neighbors. Every year, Mayor Slay hosts a Holiday Design Card Contest. Entries normally come through school art classes.

The Mayor selects ten finalists, with the winner’s design being used as his holiday card.

All of the winners are then invited to a reception in the Mayor’s office in City Hall.

The winning design entry this year was Second-grade student James Stevens-Fitzhugh from Wilkinson Early Childhood Center. James and his parents, Julia Stevens and Michael Fitzhugh live on the 5800 block of Nina. At the reception, James was no doubt pleased and surprised to learn that two of the ten finalists were neighbors and playmates from Skinker DeBaliviere. Will Kreuter, who attends St. Roch School and is the son of Matt Kreuter and Charlene Carbunay, and also lives on the 5800 block of Nina was a finalist as was Gabriel Von Rohr, a student at Kennard CJA and lives on the 5900 block of Kingsbury. Gabriel’s proud parents are Enrique and Melissa Von Rohr.

All of the boys can be seen in the photo from the Mayor’s reception pointing to their beautiful winning designs. Congrats to all of these talented kids. Mayor Slay presented each student will a certificate of achievement, and Bissinger’s Handcrafted Chocolate provided a complimentary gift for each of the finalists. Children 12 and under who live or attend school in the City of St. Louis were invited to submit a design for consideration in the 15th annual contest, which received 258 entries.

On November 17th, Governor Jay Nixon appointed the Honorable Michael Noble as Circuit Judge for the 22nd Judicial Court which covers the City of St. Louis. Michael and his wife Angie reside on the 5700 block of McPherson. Judge Noble graduated from the United States Military Academy-West Point in 1988 and from St. Louis University School of Law in 2004. Prior to this appointment he served as an Associate Circuit Judge in the city of St. Louis. Previously, Judge Noble served as a Drug Court Commissioner for the 22nd Judicial Circuit, during which time the St. Louis City Drug Court was awarded the National Association of Drug Court Professionals Cultural Proficiency Courage Award. Additionally, Judge Noble is a past president of the Missouri Association of Drug Court Professionals. Judge Noble served as a Field Artillery Officer in both the United States Army and Army Reserves.

He has also served as a patent agent and patent attorney for Armstrong Teasdale L.L.P. and an Assistant Public Defender in the city of St. Louis. Judge Noble (or Michael as many of us know him as) fills the position created by the retirement of the Honorable John Garvey. Congratulations Michael – well deserved!

It is no secret to many of the Times of Skinker DeBaliviere readers that my least favorite part of writing this column is all too often having to report the loss of a neighbor or former neighbor. Yet I also have come to learn that it is so important to share the news and even better, hopefully to trigger happy memories of these wonderful friends and neighbors.

On October 7th, Dan Lodes passed away. Dan grew up on the 6100 block of Kingsbury and married Jewell Ann Bobbi (Nerviani) who grew up down the street on Kingsbury.

They were married for 43 years and had five children and 15 grandchildren, and lived in Webster Groves. Longtime residents surely have memories of the Lodes and Nerviani families and our thoughts and prayers go out to them. Dan often returned to his old stomping grounds to support St. Roch at the annual Golf Tournament.

The 6100 block of Kingsbury suffered another loss with the passing of Virginia LegueyFeilleux on Sunday, November 15 at the age of 90. Virginia leaves behind her husband of 62 wonderful years, JeanRobert Leguey-Feilleux and four daughters; Michele, Monique, Suzanne, and Christy as well as two grandchildren. Virginia was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and studied at the University of Buffalo and the Albright School of Art where then she later became a professional artist in New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. Many of you may recall that Times contributor Suzanne Knese had written a lovely article for the Times of Skinker DeBaliviere about how Virginia and Jean-Robert met all those years ago. (see archives, February-March, 2012, sdtimes.org) Our deepest sympathies go out to the entire Leguey-Feilleux family.

To honor and remember Virginia’s incredible talent as an artist there will be a Retrospective of her work at the Andy Cross Studio at 5947 McPherson.

The show will be free and open to the public on Saturday, February 13th from 4:00 to 7:00 and Sunday, February 14th from 2:00 to 5:00. And having mentioned the St. Roch Golf Tournament earlier, I will let you know that Lenny and Suzanne Knese are already planning for the tournament this year and ask that you all save the date of Sunday, September 18th in Forest Park. 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”.

We love to hear about neighbors accomplishments, awards, travels, weddings, anniversaries, births, and more!

Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February–March 2016.

Read this article in the original newspaper issue.

Original source: SD_Times2016_02.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 3.