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Fernando Pavarotti, 89, opera star's father
Modena, Italy - Fernando Pavarotti, the father of opera star Luciano Pavarotti, died Friday in a clinic in Modena, the family's hometown. He was 89.
The tenor, who reportedly was by his father's side when he died, lost his mother, Adele Venturi, in January.
Fernando Pavarotti, who was once a baker, made a brief appearance on stage during a concert last year marking his son's 40th anniversary in opera.
Four days after the elder Pavarotti's death, the 66-year-old singer performed at his annual charity concert in Modena, "Pavarotti & Friends."
05/30/02
Carol Rosenzweig, 71, TV writer, producer
Beverly Hills, Calif. - Television writer and telethon producer Carol Rosenzweig, who was a 41-year cancer survivor, died May 20 of complications of ovarian cancer. She was 71.
Rosenzweig was born in New York City and went to work in 1951 for a Pittsburgh public relations firm, where she spent the next nine years producing nearly 20 telethons for the March of Dimes and other national charitable organizations.
She wrote "21 Days of America, " a series of two-minute, televised salutes to the country's bicentennial in 1976, which featured President Ford and Bob Hope.
Rosenzweig learned she had breast cancer at age 29 and, after undergoing two mastectomies in nine years, remained cancer-free for 22 years.
She was diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer in 1991.
In 2000, she and her husband, Saul, donated $1 million to the UCLA cancer center.
05/30/02
Oscar Florentino Tellez, Texas Tornado regular
San Antonio - Oscar Florentino Tellez, one of San Antonio's best-known bajo sexto players who was a regular with the Grammy-winning Texas Tornados, died Sunday in a one-vehicle traffic accident near Cotulla. He was 56.
Tellez, a native of Laredo, taught himself to play music as a small boy. By his teens, he had learned to play the bass, drums, accordion, keyboards and the bajo sexto, a Mexican bass guitar that resembles a 12-string guitar.
In Europe, Tellez was affectionately called the "Frito Bandito."
05/30/02
Maxwell Riddle, Press dog columnist
Ravenna - Maxwell Riddle, retired Cleveland Press dog columnist, was internationally known as a dog show judge, breeder, exhibitor and writer for more than 60 years.
He was sanctioned by the American Kennel Club and judged shows all over the world. He was the first American to judge at all-breed shows in Hong Kong and Japan.
After retiring from the Press in 1978, he continued writing as an associate editor of "Dog World" magazine.
Riddle, 94, of Ravenna, died May 21 at Bonnie's Home Health Care in Rootstown.
The Ravenna native graduated from Ravenna High School. He began writing special articles for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson after graduating from the University of Arizona in 1929.
While working as an instructor at the Southern Arizona School for Boys, Riddle wrote for the NEA Service Inc.
By the late 1930s, he had returned home to be nearer NEA's Cleveland office.
He wrote a dog column for NEA's weekly magazine, "Every Week, " and special articles for the American Kennel Gazette before joining the Press in 1939.
In addition to writing a pet column for the Press, Riddle covered developments at the Cleveland Zoo and at the Cleveland Aquarium in Gordon Park. He also contributed book reviews.
He was a member of the Western Reserve Kennel Club and, in 1935, became a founding member of the Dog Writers Association of America. The association later established the Maxwell Award for writing on dog subjects.
The past president of the Ravenna Kennel Club and of the Springer Spaniel Club of Ohio helped develop the All-Breed Hunter's Trial, designed as a challenge for hunters and dogs, in 1952.
Riddle was known to take dogs home to study them, in order to sharpen his judging abilities. Later, he placed them in good homes.
He wrote several books, including "This is the Chihuahua, " "The Springer Spaniel, " "The Lovable Mongrel" and "You and Your Dog."
Riddle raised bees on his 125-acre Ravenna farm. He was stung more than 70 times in 1972, when he tried to rescue the family's pony, which had knocked over two beehives.
An estimated 50, 000 bees swarmed from the hive, many stinging the pony until the animal died. Riddle was hospitalized for several days.
His first wife, Martha, died in 1982. Survivors include his wife, Lenora, of Springer Island, Fla.; a daughter, Betsy Whitmore of Ravenna; a son, Henry of Ravenna; 10 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren; and a brother.
Riddle requested that his body be donated to the Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown.
A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. June 15 at the First Congregational Church, 266 South Chestnut St., Ravenna.
Contributions may be made to the Portage County Animal Protective League, 903 East Lake St., Ravenna 44266.
05/31/02
Henry Sibits, was steel safety inspector
Henry Sibits, 81, a retired safety inspector for the Republic Steel Co. in the Flats, died May 20 in his Cleveland home.
Sibits had worked for the steel company for 23 years, retiring in 1977.
He had been a longtime member of the Polish Legion of American Veterans Post 157 on Turney Road in Cleveland, serving as the Post's past commander and junior vice commander. He also was a volunteer at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Administration Medical Center in Brecksville.
Sibits was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II.
He was past president of Local 2265 retirees of the United Steel Workers of America.
Sibits was an active member of the former Transfiguration Church in Slavic Village, where he and his wife, Jean, were married
55 years ago. The church was severely damaged by fire in 1990, and the couple transferred to St. Stanislaus Church on Foreman Avenue.
Born in McAdoo, Pa., Sibits came to Cleveland when he was 16. He graduated from South High School.
Surviving with his wife are sons, Michael of Parma, Alan of Brunswick, Henry and James of Cleveland and Roch of Naples, Fla.; daughters, Marsha Zarobski of Sagamore Hills, Andrea of Honolulu, Hawaii, Jeanne Kotlarsic of Parma and Jennifer Sibits-Hyps of Auburn Township; 15 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and one brother.
Services have been held.
Arrangements were by Golubski Funeral Home, Inc., 6500 Fullerton Ave., Cleveland.
05/31/02
Eddie Marotta, Golden Gloves champ
North Royalton - Services for Eddie Marotta, a national Golden Gloves champion, will be at 7 p.m. today at the Busch Family Chapel, 7501 Ridge Road, Parma. Marotta, 73, died Sunday at the Patrician nursing home.
Edward Marotta, who was born in Cleveland and graduated from Lincoln High School, began boxing when he was 13. He won the national featherweight title in 1947. After winning 117 of 135 amateur fights, he turned pro and had 48 fights, losing only five, with one draw.
The draw probably prevented a riot during a bizarre fight card in Minneapolis, Minn. He and Harry LaSane were slotted for a six-round bout following the main event. The major fight featured Jackie Graves, a nationally ranked anti-hero who was disliked by fellow Minnesotans because of his peevish personality and penchant for fighting unqualified opponents. When the irascible Graves knocked out his overmatched adversary in the first of the scheduled 10 rounds, the 10, 000 spectators leaped to their feet with jeers and cat calls. The fans would neither calm down nor leave, so fight officials started the Marotta-LaSane match.
The noise did not diminish as the fighters rushed from their corners and threw rapid-fire punches with abandon, but by the end of the first round, the boos had changed to wild cheers. The fans did not sit and did not stop cheering through the remaining rounds as the fighters took turns pummeling each other into the ropes for the entire match.
When officials called the fight even, the formerly angry fans left with smiles, many talking about the best fight they had ever seen.
Later, Marotta enlisted in the Army and coached championship boxing teams in Germany. Three of his fighters were chosen for the Olympics.
He was inducted into the Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Ohio State Former Boxers Hall of Fame the next year.
In civilian life he had worked as a machinist.
He married
Patricia Kalbrunner 47 years ago.
Marotta is also survived by sons, Edward of Parma, Michael of Albuquerque, Paul of southern Ohio, Joseph of North Royalton and James of Brecksville; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and two brothers.
Memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Association, 12200 Fairhill Road, Cleveland 44120.
05/31/02
Beverly Brown, modern-dance choreographer, performer
Kansas City, Mo. - Beverly Brown, a modern-dance choreographer and longtime lead performer with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, died May 17 in Kansas City. She was 61. A longtime resident of Manhattan, Brown moved to Kansas City two months before her death.
The cause was a stroke, her sister, Tracy Brown, said.
Born in Effingham, Ill., and reared in Venezuelan oil camps and in Arizona, Brown graduated from Carlton College in Northfield, Minn., then traveled east to New York City and a 40-year career in dance. She performed with Hawkins from 1967 to 1974.
At first she found herself in uncharted territory, as she put it in a 1996 interview. By the mid-1990s, Brown had been designated a senior repertory consultant to a new young generation of Hawkins dancers.
Brown stood out as a dancer for her blend of serenity, simplicity and quietly gutsy energy, a mix that made her an ideal interpreter of Hawkins' works and that permeated her own choreography. After leaving the company, she formed the Body Voice Theater and then the Beverly Brown Ensemble, through which she experimented with dancers performing not only movement but also the natural sounds that accompanied much of her choreography.
Brown taught dance at such institutions as Colorado University at Boulder and the University of California at Santa Cruz. She also composed music for Siddha Yoga meditation communities in New York and Kansas City.
05/31/02
Carmela Baratta, 96, mother of five doctors
Amityville, N.Y. - For most of her adult life, it was not difficult for Carmela Baratta to find a doctor. Sometimes she fed as many as five of them at her dinner table.
Baratta, who died Saturday at 96 in Amityville, had five sons, all of them medical doctors. At one point, all five were practicing in Lindenhurst, N.Y., where Baratta lived with her husband, Vincent, until his death in 1985.
"Aside from being a stable and devoted mother, she was an excellent cook, " said her son, Anthony.
The sons, whose ages span 10 years, attended medical schools in a wide range of places, and three of them were in school at the same time.
Surviving are her five sons, Michael of Los Angeles, Anthony and Ronald of Islip, N.Y., Vincent of Windham, N.Y., and Frank of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; 16 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.
05/31/02
Anthony Tomaro, police officer, bailiff
Mayfield Heights - Anthony C. Tomaro, 75, a Cleveland Heights policeman for 33 years, died Tuesday at Euclid General Hospital. He was deputy chief when he retired in 1986. He then served as a bailiff in Cleveland Heights Municipal Court and later in Lyndhurst Municipal Court.
Tomaro was born in Cleveland. He graduated from East Technical High School in 1944, then joined the Marines. A machine gunner, he was wounded on Okinawa and later participated in the initial landing at Tokyo Bay following the Japanese surrender.
He married
Carmel Ruggiero 54 years ago. They were residents of Mayfield Heights for 33 years.
After Tomaro joined the police force in 1953, he served in nearly every capacity in the department. He was a member of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 14.
Tomaro continued his education after he retired. He graduated from Lakeland Community College in 1975.
In addition to his wife, Tomaro is survived by daughters, Diane Diulus of Seven Hills, Concetta Sabia of Brodheadsville, Pa., Maryann Heffernan of Dublin, Ohio, and Michele Lanese of Willoughby; eight grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a brother.
Services will be at 10 a.m. today at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, 6850 Mayfield Road, Gates Mills.
Arrangements are by the Fioritto Funeral Home of Lyndhurst.
05/31/02
