Turning Back The Pages - March 4

75 years ago — 1935

Col. Oliver Nelson Blackington, about the last remaining veteran of the civil war, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Newman H. Athoe in Lime Rock on Monday afternoon at the ripe age of 95 years. During his long and eventful life he passed through many interesting experiences.

Mr. C.B. Falls of Falls Village has been commissioned by Mr. Edsel Ford to paint two murals 30 by 30 feet for the Ford Motor Company, for their building at the San Diego Exposition in California which opens May 29th, 1935. It may be remembered that Mr. Falls designed and painted the decorations for the General Electric Company for their exhibit at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago.

The dam at the new Bartle place at Ore Hill broke Wednesday afternoon and let loose a flood of water that poured out onto the highway leading to Indian Mountain School. About 150 feet of the road was washed out, the lawn at the Bartle homestead across the road was also badly washed out. The dam impounded the water creating a reservoir of about six acres. Faulty construction is supposed to be the cause of the break.

50 years ago — 1960

LAKEVILLE — Edward Parmlee of Walton Street celebrated his 90th birthday on Feb. 27. He enjoyed many visitors who came to call and offer their congratulations at his home over the weekend.

FALLS VILLAGE — Mrs. Mildred O’Hara of Pine Grove is the winner of a Royal portable typewriter in a national contest sponsored by Quaker Oats.

For many years the joy of young fishermen, the old swinging bridge across Factory Pond in Lakeville finally succumbed to the decrepitude of old age and had to be removed this winter. It had been used since 1899 by the guests at Wononsco House — later the Gateway Inn — who wished to make a short cut across the pond to the shores of Lake Wononscopomuc.

25 years ago — 1985

Joseph Robitaille, who has been offered the job as superintendent of schools in Waterbury, will end his five-year tenure as superintendent of the district in June.

Mrs. Erik K. Burger of South Kent won $2,350 for the Kent Fire Department’s Ice Watch contest. The tripod set up in the middle of the Housatonic River by Kent firemen went into the water at 4:21 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26. Mrs. Burger’s guess was 4:12 p.m. on that day.

Taken from decades-old Lake-ville Journals, these items contain original spellings and phrases.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less