Glenside

It was a celebration of family and friendship Sunday as hundreds of Glenside residents gathered at the Harry Renninger Recreation Area for the community's 89th annual Independence Day Celebration. The day began with morning activities for children at the recreation area, followed by a parade in the early evening. Rene Mealey, who has headed the holiday celebration for two years, said the event cost $15,000 to stage. The money was raised through donations. "(Glenside) is the longest continuously running parade in the state," said Mealey, who has lived in Glenside for 24 years.

Kimber Anne Cunnane, 27, died Sunday as a result of injuries suffered in a traffic accident that day outside Columbia, S.C. A former resident of Glenside, Miss Cunnane had been a saleswoman for the Sears Budget Rent-A-Car Co. in Columbia. She was a 1980 graduate of Bishop McDevitt High School and attended Montgomery County Community College. She had spent the last three years at Hilton Head Island, S.C., and planned to marry Daniel Santomaro of Columbia early next year. According to family members, Miss Cunnane was a free spirit who liked the outdoors, especially the beach, and the people of Columbia.

In the realm of pop music, the Cocteau Twins are the proverbial mystery wrapped in an enigma. For the last eight years, the Twins have constructed a shimmering architecture of feverish dreams. Against that swirling backdrop, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser has sung in a language that resembles none spoken on Earth. Saturday night, the Cocteau Twins brought their netherworld music to the Keswick Theater in Glenside. For 90 minutes the three Twins - plus two additional guitarists - spun their hypnotic and ethereal creations for an entranced sellout audience.

Shortly before the end of the Klezmer Conservatory Band's second hourlong set at the Keswick Theater in Glenside yesterday afternoon, bandleader Hankus Netsky thanked the capacity crowd for coming to the celebration. His choice of words was appropriate. When played the way it should be, klezmer, a melange of Eastern European Jewish music and American jazz and popular genres, is a joyous music. And when the 12-piece aggregation broke into a Russian sher medley, members of the audience slowly but surely filled the aisles of the theater with a laughing, percolating, mobile quasi-conga line.

The federal government has hit a Glenside-based construction company with $77,500 in fines for allegedly exposing its employees to extremely dangerous levels of lead during reconstruction work on railway bridges in Philadelphia. In issuing a "willful" citation, one of its most stringent penalities, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) indicated its belief that Muratone Company Inc. knew or should have known about the hazard, which could cause death or serious injury.

Each of the four artists featured in "A Closer Look," guest-curated for the Beaver College Art Gallery by Alex Baker, rewards a viewer for making the trip to Glenside. Matthew Wine's creepy-looking sculptures, made from multicolored foam carpet-backing, transform a utilitarian domestic material into an intimation of alien life. The small green-and-yellow sculpture that appears to have attached itself to a window is especially unsettling. Susan Arthur's staged photographs - candy chicks, snowmen and such placed in outdoor settings - express something of the same surreal oddness.

At night, the North Hills commuter train station on Mount Carmel Avenue near North Hills Avenue in Abington is lit up like Veterans Stadium on a night that the Phillies are at home. It wasn't always that way, though. Before the station was revamped, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. One night back in those dark days, a man hid in one of the shacks that shielded commuters from the rain. A police officer patrolling the area failed to see him. When the officer left, the man broke into a car and used jumper cables in an attempt to steal it. But local residents on Townwatch patrol spotted him and alerted police.

Judith Joy Shore, 67, a Zionist volunteer, died Sunday at her home in Glenside. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mrs. Shore graduated from the Midwood High School and attended New York University. The longtime member of Hadassah served as president of the Henrietta Szold Group and of its Philadelphia chapter, and was still active with the organization at the time of her death. She volunteered for 10 years on the Service Committee of the National Board of Hadassah. She was a member of the commission that created the Sister Cities Plaza Celebration at 18th Street and the Parkway, marking the U.S. Bicentennial.

The Smith family of painters - four people regarded a century ago as the glamorous kind of artists travelers might write home about - is featured in a large revival show of the clan's work at the Berman Museum. Before this year is over, seven museum exhibits will have been held across the state honoring this Glenside family, including displays at Chestnut Hill's Woodmere Art Museum (now through May 17), the Independence Seaport Museum, and various road shows. These four once-popular artists worked in ways that transcended some of the aesthetic trends of their day, and they still don't fit easily into mainstream pigeonholes.

A SEPTA train struck and killed an unidentified man Thursday evening in Montgomery County, the agency said. An outbound train on the Lansdale/Doylestown Line hit the man about 6:15 near the North Hills station in Glenside, said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. - Sam Wood

A Glenside couple have been arrested after allegedly beating their 12-year-old foster child so badly that he needed 18 stitches to close a cut on his cheek. Claybon Hawthorne, 48, faces aggravated-assault and other charges, and his wife, Renee Fennell Hawthorne, 50, terroristic threats and endangering the welfare of a child in the April 30 incident. According to police, Renee Hawthorne accused the child of ordering an iPhone using her credit card. Apparently as punishment, her husband dragged him by a leg into a room in their home and beat him on the head and face with a broomstick, police said.

Earl Goldberg, 87, of Glenside, owner and operator of an auto body and painting company in South Philadelphia for more than 40 years, died Friday, April 19, of complications from heart failure at Abington Memorial Hospital. Mr. Goldberg operated Star Auto Painting at Eighth and Reed Streets, a business started by his father in the 1930s. It did painting and bodywork for car dealers and owners. Mr. Goldberg wore flannel shirts and jeans to work every day, except during warm weather, when he would wear short-sleeve plaid shirts, his family said.

Members of the board of trustees at Arcadia University were no fans of Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III, whom they fired as president last month, but the Cheltenham Township commissioners appear to feel very differently. The commissioners Wednesday honored Oxholm for "his leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and commitment to improving the quality of life in the region" and his efforts in forging partnerships with the township, home to Arcadia's 55-acre campus in Glenside. "He's done a fantastic job of reaching out to the Cheltenham and Glenside community.

For some runners, qualifying for the Boston Marathon is easy. Run a three hour-something marathon? As long as I eat my Wheaties. For others, earning a "BQ" is the ultimate goal of their running lives, one reached after years of trying. Jill Beccaris-Pescatore of Glenside is one of those runners. She'll run her first Boston Marathon on Monday. To get into this race, runners must meet a specific time goal in a previous marathon, or raise funds for a charity. Those times are different depending on age and gender.

James J. Markham, 84, of Glenside, a chemistry professor and former associate dean of sciences at Villanova University, died Thursday, April 4, of a heart ailment at home. Dr. Markham's long association with Villanova began when he enrolled there in 1946 to study chemistry. He graduated in 1950, and returned to the campus as a lecturer on Sept. 1, 1952. He was named an assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1957; he rose to become associate professor four years later.

A SEPTA train struck and killed an unidentified man Thursday evening in Montgomery County, the agency said. An outbound train on the Lansdale/Doylestown Line hit the man about 6:15 near the North Hills station in Glenside, said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. - Sam Wood

DID LOU PETRO have a premonition? It was Thanksgiving, and many of his family members were gathered at his home in Ardsley. He took advantage of the opportunity to give a heartfelt talk about how much he loved everybody, how wonderful it was to have such a loving family, and what a great life he'd had. He concluded that if he checked out that night, he would be content. About 5 the next morning, he had a heart attack. After hospitalization and a return home, he died there Dec. 13. He would have celebrated his 82nd birthday Friday.

Edward A. Farnan Jr., 87, former president of a Philadelphia-area family jewelry company, died Sunday, Nov. 4, of heart failure at Abington Memorial Hospital. Mr. Farnan and his brother, John, joined their father in the family jewelry store, Edward A. Farnan & Sons Jewelers at 11th and Sansom Streets, taking over the business in the 1950s. Farnan Jewelers, now in Wayne, is run by Mr. Farnan's niece Claire Farnan. Mr. Farnan was raised in Philadelphia's Olney section. He attended La Salle College High School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

MUSIC Dialing 215 Adopted son John Wesley Harding opens another Cabinet of Wonders for the 215 Festival. Out pops Alec Ounsworth (of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah fame), Dean & Britta, The Spinto Band and more. For more 215 events, see "Mixed Bag" (below). Underground Arts, 1200 Callowhill St., Cabinet of Wonders, 9:30 p.m. Friday, $15 (21-plus). Lots more to Mo' We love the special, modern spin Keb' Mo' brings to the blues - with earnest, lilting tunes, heart warming vocals and polished band arrangements.