Levittown

Frank Cordero, 76, of Levittown, a retired refining company employee, died on Wednesday at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. He was the chief steward at Atlantic Richfield Co. for many years until his retirement in 1985. Mr. Cordero was born on the island of Samar in the Philippines, where he was a member of the Rotary Tennis Club. He came to the United States as a young man and served in the Navy during World War II. He was a longtime resident of Philadelphia before moving to Levittown in 1973.

A Levittown man was being held in the Bucks County Correctional Facility in Doylestown last week in connection with an assault of an off-duty Falls Township police officer. Jerald Matthews, 19, of the 100 block of Lower Orchard Drive, Levittown, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of reckless endangerment after the attack Oct. 6 outside Matthews' home. He was arraigned before District Justice Catherine Ritter and was sent to prison when he did not post 10 percent of $500,000 bail.

When developer William J. Levitt built his third Levittown, sociologists doubted a sense of community could grow out of the Burlington County labyrinth of cookie-cutter houses. But 50 years later, original resident Lee Isackson, 74, tutors immigrants in a public library started from boxes of books stacked in her garage. Her husband, Richard, also 74, has devoted 39 years to the town's Rotary Club. Cliff and Dottie Anderson, charter members of the town's St. Paul Methodist Church, are planning their 60th wedding anniversary celebration at home in the first section Levitt built.

The Louis A. Galzerano Funeral Home, which has served the Bristol area for more than 75 years from 430 Radcliffe St., will open a second location in Levittown by late spring. Louis A. Galzerano 3d, whose grandfather founded the business and provided in-home service to his first clients, said the 12,000-square-foot building, under construction at 3500 Bristol-Oxford Valley Rd., will serve an expanded and more diverse market. The building, done in an eclectic Georgian design, features matching front and rear porticos, an elaborate interior lobby, and two viewing rooms.

Growing up in lower Bucks County in the 1960's, Dale Frazier had a blast playing in the woods and vast fields near his home on the outskirts of Levittown, one of America's first single-home developments. Frazier moved away as an adult, but in his childhood memories, the community was forever young, clean, and thriving. So after living in other parts of the county and the country, he moved back, settling seven years ago in the Farmwood section with his wife and daughter. Levittown was not as he remembered.

One person was dead after a car accident Tuesday evening in Bucks County, authorities said. The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. at Emilie Road and Indian Creek Place in Levittown, a dispatch supervisor said. The accident was initially described as a car hitting a tree. Authorities said that one person in the car was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of the accident was under investigation. - Robert Moran

Philomena E. Christopher Dougherty, 80, a homemaker whose family members were the first non-Levitt employees to reside in Levittown, Bucks County, died Wednesday at her home in New Hope. "She and my father and the children were the first [non-Levitt employee] family to move into Levittown in June 1952," said her daughter Rita K. Calzerette. Levittown developer William Levitt "chose them as the all-American family and over the years she was presented with roses and was present at most ribbon-cutting ceremonies celebrating Levitt grand openings.

John T. Rossi, 55, formerly of Levittown, Bucks County, a former can-manufacturing company employee, died Tuesday at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., after a six-week illness. For 20 years, he was a machine mechanic for National Can Co. in Fairless Hills. At the time of his death, he had been employed for eight years as a custodian for the Mount Carmel Area School District. A native of Mount Carmel in Schuylkill County, Mr. Rossi was raised there and moved to Levittown 35 years ago. He returned to Mount Carmel in 1990.

A 4-year-old Levittown child nearly drowned Thursday in the family pool. The child's mother had left the child outside alone briefly while she went into the house. When she returned, she found the child on the bottom of the family's above-ground pool, police said. It happened Thursday morning around 11:30 a.m. in the unit block of Crestwood Road, police said. The woman, a registered nurse at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, jumped into the 4-foot-deep pool, pulled her child onto the deck, and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

One person was dead after a car accident Tuesday evening in Bucks County, authorities said. The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. at Emilie Road and Indian Creek Place in Levittown, a dispatch supervisor said. The accident was initially described as a car hitting a tree. Authorities said that one person in the car was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of the accident was under investigation. - Robert Moran

At the headquarters of National Energy Solutions Inc., the warehouse out back is filled with products at the heart of the Levittown company's entrepreneurial mission: energy-efficient commercial lighting fixtures to help businesses save money. Out front, on the window of co-founder Ray Sizer's office, is a sticker in support of the Navy, another symbol of yet another NESI objective: to hire returning veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company, formed in 2007 to install new lighting systems at businesses anywhere in the country, has 12 employees, three of whom are military veterans.

Bristol Township police are looking for the driver of a car that stuck and killed a 36-year-old Levittown man early Sunday morning. Eric Beck, of Wild Rose Lane, who had been at a party at a bar on New Falls Road in Bristol Township, was hit by a black Audi about 12:30 a.m. as he walked home, according to police Sgt. Chuck Burns. Police found him dead at the scene at New Falls Road and Holly Drive. The Audi, which suffered some damage, did not stop, Burns said. The driver of a second vehicle that hit Beck did stop and is cooperating with police.

Growing up in lower Bucks County in the 1960's, Dale Frazier had a blast playing in the woods and vast fields near his home on the outskirts of Levittown, one of America's first single-home developments. Frazier moved away as an adult, but in his childhood memories, the community was forever young, clean, and thriving. So after living in other parts of the county and the country, he moved back, settling seven years ago in the Farmwood section with his wife and daughter. Levittown was not as he remembered.

Drama teacher Lou Volpe has been at Levittown's Truman High forever. Truly, since 1969. A girl in the current production is the daughter of a munchkin in his earlier Wizard of Oz and the niece of Snoopy in his You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown . That doesn't mean Mr. Volpe, 63, isn't about change. He's all about change. He was the first teacher to stage a high school production of Rent . His production of Les Mis - with a cast and crew of 127! - is the definitive school production.

SEPTA is running shuttle buses between Levittown and Trenton until its tracks at the Trenton Transportation Center can be repaired. The tracks were damaged by flooding from Hurricane Irene. Buses will depart Trenton Station 18 minutes before the scheduled train departure time for connecting trains at Levittown Station, SEPTA said. Buses will depart Levittown Station after the arrival of trains to take riders to Trenton. SEPTA said one Trenton train - the 9745, which leaves Market East Station at 4:45 p.m. - will not run today.

A 4-year-old Levittown child nearly drowned Thursday in the family pool. The child's mother had left the child outside alone briefly while she went into the house. When she returned, she found the child on the bottom of the family's above-ground pool, police said. It happened Thursday morning around 11:30 a.m. in the unit block of Crestwood Road, police said. The woman, a registered nurse at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, jumped into the 4-foot-deep pool, pulled her child onto the deck, and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

A 33-year-old Bucks County inmate at Graterford Prison has been charged with murder in the death of another inmate seven weeks after he was beaten during an attack in an outdoor exercise cage, police said. John Anthony Kasianczuk of Levittown allegedly punched Roberto Avalle in the head, then stomped on Avalle's head, causing a brain hemorrhage that ultimately killed him, police said. The attack occurred on Aug. 22, 2010, officials said. Avalle died on Oct. 9 while being treated in the infirmary at the State Correctional Institution at Laurel Highlands, in Somerset County.

Bensalem Police arrested a Levittown man for assaulting and robbing a couple outside Parx Casino early Thursday morning. James Ashton, 20, approached the couple as they exited the casino at about 4:45 a.m., police said. He pushed the woman to the ground and ripped her purse off of her arm, according to police. Ashton struggled with the woman and her companion. Bensalem Police Officer Steve Bailey was patrolling the parking lot of the casino when he saw Parx security chasing Ashton.