Harry's granddaughter scores again

Anna Liggett

The late Harry Liggett's granddaughter, and Harry's son Tom's daughter, Anna, Tom announced:

"Really proud dad moment. Anna, my St. V-St. M freshman, just got the lead role of Belle in the musical 'Beauty and the Beast.'  Great job, Anna. Take care of that voice. I love you baby."

Anna, whose mom is Susan, performed in a St. Vincent-St. Mary High School dinner murder mystery play Feb. 6 and in a St. V-St. M summer camp production of "The Mysterious Case of the Missing Ring."  

Harry, founder of the BJ Alums blog and a BJ newsroom retiree, passed away Jan. 24.

Mush, you huskies, for Katie!

Katie Byard dogsledding in New Hampshire;
she must have worn out the white dog

BJ reporter Katie Byard went dogsledding in the White Mountains of New Hamphire?

Katie's response: "Oh, yes, we did!"

My late wife Monnie and I enjoyed the White Mountains and Franconia Notch in 1996. We didn't climb aboard a dogsled, but in 2010 Paula and I did visit an Iditarod champ's camp in Alaska and watch sleddogs perform at Denali National Park.

Monnie and I took a $40 van ride up Mount Washington, at 6,288 feet the highest peak in the Northeast. It was 76 degrees when we began the climb and 1 degree with wind chill at the top! 

We stood where "Walden" author Henry David Thoreau once stood at The Cup, near The Flume.

We stayed two nights at the Stonybrook Motel and Lodge in Franconia, NH before we headed for whale-watching off Bar Harbor, Maine. 

Be glad it’s not 2008 winter 

Think this is an unusual winter snowfall for us?

At last count, the Akron/Canton Airport winter snowfall totaled 50.5 inches. That's nearly 20 inches more than at the same time last winter and it's slightly above the 47.4-inch average winter snowfall for Akron/Canton.

But this winter is about 10 inches behind the 2010-11 winter's total snowfall. Since the February average is 10.5 inches, 2010-11 may fall, too, to the current winter. 

Just be glad it's not 2008. It had the all-time snowiest February with 25.8 inches.

Mansfield's winter snowfall average is about the same as Akron/Canton. Youngstown is No. 2 at 62.8 inches. Cleveland is No. 1 at 68.1 inches.

Only May through September have no snowfall average on record for Akron/Canton.

Susan Miller has broken leg

Susan Miller

Susan Miller, with the BJ more than 25 years when she left the Advertising Art Department in 2009, has a hairline fracture of her right tibia from her car's Jan. 26 non-Olympic luge-style slide into an abutment on an icy Akron freeway.

Quips Susan: "The good news. I can throw out all my hooker heels."

Susan injured herself while "trying to stop my car Fred Flintstone style."

For laymen, the tibia is the shinbone. Shinbone connects to the anklebone. Well, you know the rest of the song. 

Susan lives in Canton and is a graduate of Canton Lincoln High School and Miami of Ohio in Oxford.

Her father, Sam Raider, passed away Feb. 2, 2004. Sue had a tribute to him on her Facebook page on Feb. 2. Dad was 89 when he died.

If you want to wish Susan well, go on her Facebook page.

Eloquent eulogy

Copy of nephew’s remarks

at Harry Liggett’s funeral

At my request, the late BJ Alums founder/BJ newsroom retiree Harry Liggett's grand-nephew, Kent State journalism student Eric Poston, emailed me the eloquent eulogy delivered by Harry's nephew, Nick Kowal, at Harry's funeral Jan. 29. It was one of several remembrances of Harry that family members discussed on the St. Paul Church pulpit. Nick's mom was Pauline Kowal, sister of Harry's late wife, Helen Smolak Liggett. This eulogy revealed things that even I didn't know about Harry, despite being joined at the hip with him at the BJ for 26 years.

Harry D.C. Liggett was a good man. He was honest, truthful, loving, caring, compassionate, trusting, knowledgeable and generous. I guess it’s all those traits and characteristics that made him the best possible journalist he could be. He was a great husband, father, grandfather and uncle to many people such as me. 

Harry, Helen, great-nephew Eric

Uncle Harry, as we all knew him, would officially become part of our extended Smolak family when he married my mom’s sister, Helen, on September 7, 1957. What little did he know was that only 16 days later I would be born and I would eventually come into his life. 

Harry and Helen lived in the little town of Dennison, Ohio after they were married. They rented an apartment above a beauty salon where my mom and Aunt Helen would both get their hair done. Harry worked at the local newspaper as a reporter and photographer, but for all we knew he might have also been printing and delivering it too.

On our family visits to Dennison and Uhrichsville from Akron, Ohio, which I might add were nearly every weekend as long as our grandmother “Baba” was alive, we would always visit all the aunts and uncles. It would be a daylong adventure that we would always look forward to, especially for my two brothers and me. 

There were times while we were visiting Aunt Helen and Uncle Harry where he would get called out to report on breaking news in the local community. It’s those moments that convinced us that Uncle Harry was a very important person! Looking back now, we all realized that he actually was the first celebrity that we knew. 

Harry and Helen would eventually move to Akron in the mid-60s when Harry landed a job at the Akron Beacon Journal. They purchased a house in Firestone Park, which was only one mile away from our house. We knew it was exactly one mile because we couldn’t wait to measure it on our banana bikes that were fitted with speedometers and odometers. My mom was so happy because one of her sisters was so nearby. We were also very happy because now we had a place to visit.

I always remember the Akron Beacon Journal column that Harry wrote, which was named “On the Farm.” How ironic that Helen and Harry move from a little railroad town to the big city and Harry gets to write his very own column about the rural farming community. 

I remember our family driving by the Giant Tiger Department Store in west Akron one Sunday where there were many protesters out front. They were protesting the store being open, which was illegal back then. We drove by because my mom commented that Uncle Harry was doing a story on the protests. How ironic that Harry would be working on a Sunday to report on a story about people working on a Sunday.

Before Tom and Bob came into Helen and Harry’s life, the Kowal family would visit often, or should I say we would overwhelm their house. The family visit would always start out with everyone in the living room, which at that time we called the “front room.” 

Uncle Harry and my Dad would end up in the dining room and us boys would end up playing in the basement, which we truly enjoyed. Uncle Harry would be the person who opened the door to the basement and let us downstairs. 

He was a very smart man. Now that I look back, my brothers and I knew the layouts of all our relative’s basements quite well. Aunt Helen and Uncle Harry always had refreshments and goodies for us kids. We will never forget that. Visits between the Kowals and the Liggetts were very frequent, either at their hour or at our house.

One common theme with Uncle Harry was that he always wanted to know how us kids were doing in school and he always stressed for us to get a good education. A few years ago I had the opportunity to go to an Ohio State football game with a friend of mine that has a daughter attending the university. She took us on an extensive hour of the massive campus. As we walked around, I imagined what it might have been like for a smalltown boy named Harry Liggett to be walking some of these same paths back in the early 50s while working on his journalism degree.

As time moved on, the two biggest pride and joys of Harry’s life would happen in pairs, but spaced over quite a few years. First with his two sons Tom and Bob and then with his two granddaughters Erin and Anna. He was so proud of his children and grandchildren, which was quite evident by the major amounts of time that he spent with them and his personal involvement in all of their activities. He also couldn’t ask for a better daughter-in-law, Tom’s wife Sue.

Harry was always involved in something. He was not the kind of person that would just sit back and do nothing. Harry Liggett was a no non-sense kind of guy, who always wanted to do the right thing. He was a union rep for his co-workers at the Beacon Journal. He was deeply involved with the Boy Scouts of America when Tom and Bob were in the troops. He was on the St. Paul’s Church Council and helped to get many things accomplished at the church and school, long before his two sons and grandkids attended and graduated from the school.

He started and maintained the St. Paul’s Church blog and also started and maintained the Smolak Family genealogy website, which was one of my favorites. The pictures and articles that Harry posted were very information and the majority of the photos were priceless. 

Aunt Helen and Uncle Harry even opened their home throughout the years for a few of my cousins and some of his relative to live during various school years, so they could attend the University of Akron. This is how much getting an education meant to them. I might add that Harry was determined to make sure Tom and Bob both graduated from Archbishop Hoban High School and also obtained their four-year degrees from the University of Akron. Go Zips and Fear the Roo. Last I heard Bob may still be an A K Rowdy.

Uncle Harry has greatly influenced my nephew Eric Poston, who is currently attending the University of Akron for a communication degree. Eric also writes articles for his local newspaper, The Suburbanite, and also takes his own pictures. Sound familiar? 

Harry will be sadly missed, but greatly remembered. I will especially remember my Uncle Harry for the day that he stopped over to drop off all the admission’s paperwork for me to attend the University of Akron. I had been out of high school for a few years and was saving money for going to school, but I just hadn’t done anything to move in that direction. Uncle Harry provided the extra push and perseverance that I needed to get started. I eventually received a four-year degree in electronic technology and was able to land a great job. 

I thank my Uncle Harry for that. 

The rest of the story

about seniors & poverty level

By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)

Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson declared the War on Poverty, the percentage of seniors nationwide living below the poverty line has plummeted from 27 percent to 9 percent, according to a BJ analysis by BJ reporter Rick Armon.

Not so, says the Kaiser Family Foundation. When you deduct health expenses from income, which affects seniors more than younger citizens, Kaiser says, the rate is 15 percent. 

The census defines the poverty threshold for those 65 or older as $11,173 a year for a single individual and $14,095 for a two-person household. Since the average annual Social Security payment is about $15,000, then everyone getting average or better SS checks can't be in poverty.

And that doesn't include pensions, IRAs and other sources of income.

The median seniors household income is about $35,000, which puts half the seniors at more than double the poverty level. By the way, when comparing seniors income to their junior counterparts, those in Nevada and Hawaii do the best and those in New Jersey, Rhode Island, North Dakota and Massachusetts do the worst.

A fairer assessment would be comparing after-tax incomes of retirees to current workers. My taxes -- federal and state income and Social Security bites -- dropped $15,000 after my retirement. That means my spending power was equal to a worker making $15,000 more than me. 

Then elderly medical costs kick in to bite into the tax savings for seniors. Obviously, it's a complex issue, and using only one set of numbers doesn't paint a true picture.

To read Armon's BJ article, click on http://www.ohio.com/news/local/an-american-success-story-fewer-seniors-living-in-poverty-1.465187

Will Trexler be forced to testify?

The Ohio Supreme Court voted 4-3 to require BJ reporter Phil Trexler to explain why he shouldn't be forced to testify in a Akron Bar Association disciplinary hearing against Akron attorney Larry Shenise.

The case stems from Shenise's 80-year-old client being arrested and jailed after he missed a scheduled hearing in a civil court case.

Common Pleas Judge Paul Gallagher, who issued the arrest warrant, filed a bar disciplinary complaint against Shenise, who claimed he was misquoted in the 2012 story. 

Beacon Journal attorney Karen C. Lefton said she was working on a response to the high court’s order.

To read the full article, click on http://www.ohio.com/news/beacon-journal-reporter-phil-trexler-subjects-of-ohio-supreme-court-order-1.465078

Von Trapp family, eat your heart out

Anna Liggett, the late BJ Alums founder Harrry Liggett's granddaughter, will be performing in a St. Vincent-St. Mary High School dinner murder mystery play tonight. 

Harry, granddaughters Erin, Anna

Her dad, Tom Liggett, Harry's son, at 8 p.m. tomorrow will be performing at the Civic Theatre with Straight On, a Heart tribute band that will open for Zoso, the “ultimate Led Zeppelin Experience” band.

Ticket sales are so strong that the Civic has opened up the remainder of the balcony.

Last July Harry attended Anna's performance at a St. V-St. M summer camp production of "The Mysterious Case of the Missing Ring."  

Anna's sister, Erin, wrote a moving tribute to Harry that you can read by clicking on http://bjretirees.blogspot.com/2014/01/harrys-granddaughter-writes-farewell-to.html Erin is attending Kent State University and has the acting bug, too.

Somewhere Up There Harry must be a proud grandfather, as he always was here on Earth.

Kathy Lally aka Lilly

covering Sochi Olympics

Retired BJ reporter Charlene Nevada, who is enjoying the relative warmth of their Garden City, South Carolina second home with husband Art Krummel (compared to their Tallmadge residence's Northeast Ohio winter temperature), sends along this email:

John, 

The alums might want to know that alum Kathy Lally (formerly Kathy Lilly) is reporting for the Washington Post from Sochi.  Kathy and her husband, Will Englund, shared the Moscow bureau job for the Baltimore Sun for several years. 

Then she went to the Post back home. I’m not sure if she and Will are both at the Post now or who he works for.  Kathy’s writing is as right-on as ever.

(Kathy, btw, was the cousin of the late BJ reporter, Chuck Lally.)

charlene

Indeed, Char, Kathy is busy exposing Russia's mad dash to get everything ready for the Olympics, including putting lamps into the hotel rooms.

Kathy regularly had Page A1 stories during her days at the BJ. She had a knack of calling the families of Vietnam War casualties and having them pour their hearts out to her. It also helped "put a face on" the Vietnam War, making it personal instead of just statistics and ideology. She left the Beacon about 1975, near the time that U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war ended.

After her divorce from Bill Lilly,  she went back to using her maiden name of Kathy Lally and has an impressive career in journalism.

Kathy had a voluntary buyout at the Baltimore Sun, where she was education reporter, features editor, Moscow bureau reporter and deputy foreign editor; and was deputy business editor at the Washington Post. 

Will, who left  the Sun in 2008 to cover the White House for the National Journal, won a Pulitzer for exposing how the Navy disposed of out-dated ships. 

Will and Kathy have two daughters --  Kate, photo editor for Getty Images in New York, and  Molly, who graduated from Emerson in theater. If you don't recognize Kathy from the photo in this article, check out the face of Molly in the blue dress. That's the Kathy image I remember from our State Desk days together.

If you want to read Kathy's story from the Winter Olympics at Sochi, click on  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/olympic-dream-in-sochi-internet-in-the-hotel/2014/02/01/8cc5d6fe-8a8b-11e3-916e-e01534b1e132_story.html

Ott Gangl, nudes photographer

Retired BJ photographer Ott Gangl, in what he labels "throwback Thursday," posted this on his Facebook page:

That's Ott behind his strategically placed camera

"A photojournalist gets assignments mostly involving crime, sports and politics, etc. But once every so often one gets a real fun one, as when I was assigned to ‘cover’ a nudist retreat’s 50th anniversary for our magazine, somewhere between Akron and Medina."

As you can see from this photo montage, Ott got into the mood of the nudity colony, sartorially.

Legend has it that these aren't the only nudes that Ott has photographed during his days at the BJ. His Sunday activities, as Ott recalls, were called "Sinday Shoots." 

Ott was the Sunday skinsation of the BJ.

Germans, like many European nationalities, are not as skittish about nudity as Pilgrimmized Americans.

If you want to see more explicit photos of the nudist colony Ott photographed, you'll have to go to his Facebook page for the danglers and T&A.

Ott is one guy who knows how to have fun in life. Hooray for him!

Don Roese happy in

snowless Florida 

That's retired BJ photographer Don Roese painting the Hollywood, Florida home he co-owns with his brother and their spouses.

Don posts, "All is not fun and games in paradise," but methinks it's tongue-in-cheek. 

Don Roese busy in snowless Florida

Particularly after reading Don's next quip:

"The only ice I see is in my sweet, cold ice tea. Yum yum .... Ain't no slippin' and slidin' going on down here."

Just to twist the knife a little more, in typical Don Roese fun-loving humor:

"You will notice there is not so much as a single snowflake in this photo."

Don closes with:

"Be back in Ohio in a month." 

Sorry, Don, but March in Cuyahoga Falls probably won't be worth returning to, either.

Don and wife Mary Ann were in New Zealand last year, spending a week or so with former 1970s State Desk reporter Cathy Strong, today a big wheel in the Massey University Journalism School in Wellington, New Zealand.

When BJ newsroom retiree John Olesky, assistant State Desk editor during Cathy's time at the BJ, and 1970s State Desk reporter Paula Tucker flew into Auckland, New Zealand, Don was at the airport to greet them.

The Roeses handed off Cathy to John and Paula, who flew from Wellington to Auckland to meet them and take them on a tour of Auckland.

Harry’s great-nephew gets first front-page byline

Eric Poston, great-nephew of BJ Alums founder and BJ newsroom retiree Harry Liggett, got his first front-page byline in the Suburbanite, owned by Gatehouse Media. Eric wrote about Green Mayor Dick Norton's State of the City address.

The Suburbanite covers Green, Coventry, Springfield, Manchester, Lakemore, Hartville, Lake and Jackson.

Eric lives in Green and is a Kent State journalism student who transferred from the University of Akron. He once was in charge of mowing Harry's lawn.  

Canton Repository marketing director Dan Mucci was named Suburbanite general manager in 2008. 

The Suburbanite leaders are Advertising Consultants Carol Cooney and Barbara Harding, editor Erin Pustay, assistant editor Andy Harris and advertising account executive Vickey Blakeslee. 

GateHouse is based in suburban Rochester, N.Y. It bought The Repository in April from Copley Newspapers, along with The Times-Reporter in New Philadelphia, The Independent in Massillon and The Suburbanite in Green.

GateHouse Media is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "GHS."

1. 
   

   Carney recalls 1944 family tragedy
2. 
   
3. BJ reporter Jim Carney's uncle, Sgt. Ralph W. Slate, was killed after his first bombing mission over Germany 70 years ago today.

Jim's report:

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. "My mother's brother, Sgt. Ralph W. Slate, a ball turret gunner on a B-17. and nine others, were killed 70 years ago today after finishing a bombing mission over Germany. Found this web site with their pictures. A report on the flight is on the web site.

To read the entire, detailed report, click on 

http://www.303rdbg.com/missionreports/103.pdf

GERALD A. WHITE CREW - 358th BS
(Assigned 358BS: 16 January 1944 - photo: USA Training)

(Front L-R) Capt Gerald A White (P)(KIA), 2Lt Walter W. Newsom (CP)(KIA),
2Lt Erwin A. Kruse (N)(KIA), 2Lt Warren Stafford, Jr. (B)(KIA)

(Back L-R) S/Sgt Sidney L. Bottomley (E)(KIA), Sgt Ralph W. Slate (BTG)(KIA),
S/Sgt Louis E. Znidersich (R)(KIA), Sgt Wallace E. Becknell (RWG)(KIA),
Sgt Robert E. McCoy (TG)(KIA), Sgt Alexander J. Quinlan (LWG)(KIA)
Crew Note:
The entire Gerald A. White Crew was killed on their first and only combat mission. Mission #103, 3 February 1944 to Wilhelmshaven, Germany in B-17G #42-37927 (no name) (358th BS) VK-P which was flying on her 11th mission. The B-17 was last seen after leaving the target and peeling off from the formation as to penetrate the overcast. It rolled over on its back and headed straight down. It crashed into the North Sea and no bodies were recovered.

[photo courtesy of Sherrie Shelton, niece of Earl Becknell]
[Researched by Historian Harry D. Gobrecht]

Surefire way to cut costs

Publishing "mogul" A. William "Bill" Allen has figured out how to cut costs dramatically.

According to Craig Silverman on Poynter.com, Allen Total Media saves costs by putting fake bylines on digital stories his employees assemble from press releases and stories lifted verbatim from newspapers and wire services. 

To make the stories look legitimate, Allen's folk add typos.

Allen's firm purchased 19 newspapers in Alaska and plans to revert them to digital . . . with a little help from other news sources?

Read the article at http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/regret-the-error/237923/in-pennsylvania-and-alaska-a-publisher-takes-infringement-to-another-level/
  

Black Keys bowl over Super crowd

The Black Keys, with BJ reporter Jim Carney's son Patrick Carney front and center, tore through a 90-minute set of their greatest hits Friday night at New York City’s packed Roseland Ballroom as one of the headliners of a jam-packed weekend full of A-list concerts leading up to the Super Bowl in New Jersey.

Dan Auerbach was dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans. 
Patrick Carney was on drums. Both are Firestone High School graduates. 

The show was a perk for Citi Cardholders. The Black Keys were just one of several bands to headline shows in the area leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl that pits the Denver Broncos against the Seattle Seahawks.

To read the Associated Press article in the Washington Post, click on http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/black-keys-howl-at-super-bowl-weekend-show-in-ny/2014/02/01/d9d90fb4-8b04-11e3-a760-a86415d0944d_story.html

Texting driver crashes into

Jim Carney’s son’s home

Will & Heather Carney

A texting driver crashed his car into the St. Louis suburb home of Will Carney, son of BJ reporter Jim Carney, and Will's wife, Heather. 

Writes Jim:

"Thank God nobody was hurt. Lots of damage to the house and garage and new car in garage. DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE DAMMIT!"

Will supervises engineers for Amtrak out of St. Louis. He began working as an Amtrak engineer in 2012. 

Will and Heath moved in December to a suburb west of St. Louis. 
He was in Chicago when the crash happened. Heather was home. 

Jim's oldest son, Will, lived in Peninsula and was Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway superintendent of the train that goes from the Akron Northside station to the Rockside station in Independence. 

Will started volunteering for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway when he was a middle school student. He worked as a railroad engineer and later as a safety trainer for about 12 years after high school on a variety of railroads in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania before taking the job in the Valley.

Uh-oh, Jim is texting
and drinking. 

Jim's other sons and wife & BJ reporter Katie Byard's stepsons are Patrick Carney, who has a ton of Grammy Awards as part of the Black Keys band and lives in New York City with second wife Emily Ward; and Michael, Columbus College of Art and Design grad with a Grammy for his Black Keys album art who lives in Brooklyn with Joanna Grant. 

The Carney boys are all Firestone High graduates, as is Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach. Their paternal grandparents were Wheeling, West Virginia native William "Bill" James Carney, who died in 2010, and Madge Slate Carney, a former Army nurse who passed away in 1995.

Jim's siblings are Patsy Carney Hughes, who died in 1997, and Ralph Carney (who lives in San Francisco with Deena Zacharin and is the father of Hedda Carney).   


Previously, Patrick was wed to Cleveland Scene and former BJ reporter Denise Grollmus. 

Drive past Shasta

a dry surprise

for John Dunphy

Former BJ and Orange County Register in California reporter John Dunphy drove 700 miles with wife Rebecca Allen from their Lakewood, California home to Ashland, Oregon and looked forward to seeing a majestic lake at the base of a majestic mountain. Didn't happen.

Tan area normally is water

On the way, John writes, they "powered up through the mountains from Mount Shasta to Ashland, Oregon. Very eerie ride as there is no snow and Shasta Lake is bone dry in some places."

Adds Rebecca: "Mount Shasta had NO snow. Shasta Lake was just a ribbon of water in the bottom. It's horrifying when you see it."

Lake Siskiyou, which provides a panoramic view of majestic Mount Shasta to the lake's south,  is down 17.5 feet.

On the heels of one of the driest years on record in northern California, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency and urged Californians to reduce water consumption by 20%. 

Today, John added:  "Walked 3 miles on the Bear Creek Greenway in Ashland Ore. Next stop: McMinnville." You go, John!

Dunphy is dealing with Stage 3 esophageal cancer in a remarkably upbeat and humorous way.

Harry Liggett 1930 - 2014

Harry Liggett, 83, passed away peacefully on January 24, at the Hospice Care Center in Copley.Harry was born in Dennison, Ohio on March 3, 1930, to the late Harry and Lillian Liggett, he had been an Akron area resident since 1965. 

He was a longtime and active parishioner at St. Paul Catholic Church in Akron, where he had previously served as president of the Parish Council and was the creator and editor of the Parish Blog. 

He retired in 1995 after 30 years as the assistant news editor at the Akron Beacon Journal. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict. Harry enjoyed Genealogy and was an active member of the Ohio Genealogical Society. 

Dad was a proud Eagle Scout and a faithful and devoted husband to his late wife Helen. He and Helen loved and adored their grandaughters, who became the center of their lives.

In addition to his parents; Harry was preceded in death by his wife, Helen in 2010; brother, Bill, and sisters, Mazy and Betty. 

He is survived by his sons, Tom (Susan) Liggett of Akron and Bob Liggett of Copley; grandchildren, Erin and Anna Liggett.

The family would like to extend their sincere thanks to the staffs at the Copley Healthcare Center and the Hospice Care Center of VNS for their compassionate care.

The family will receive friends on Tuesday, from 5 to 8 p.m., at the Anthony Funeral Home KUCKO-ANTHONY-KERTESZ CHAPEL, 1990 S. Main St. in Akron. 

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated by Fr. Ralph Thomas on Wednesday, 10:30 a.m., at St. Paul Catholic Church in Akron. Interment will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery in Akron. 

If one desires, the family suggests that donations be made to St. Paul Catholic Church, 1580 Brown St., Akron, OH 44301. (Anthony Funeral Homes, AKRON, 330.724.1281, anthonyfh.com) 

Harry’s family 

to the BJ family: 

Thank you!

Speaking for my brother and myself, let me tell you how overwhelmed we are at the outpouring of prayers, well-wishes and tributes to our father.

The Beacon Journal family was a big part of his life.  I talked fondly of so many and considered some of his best friends to be in that building.   I know he had the utmost respect for his friends on "the desk".

I'm glad that he brought much of that home.  From our weekly treks with him to work on his "farm report" in the early days; to the Sunday morning visits to the newsroom to find Murphey sleeping in her office, walls lined by towering stacks of paper.  The newsroom was a maze of desks, typewriters and ashtrays.  Quite a sight for a young boy.  The AP and UPI machines still ticking away in the background.  I would never trade a single one of those memories.  Nor will I need to.  Obviously still fresh in my mind.

Dad obviously left a mark at the Beacon Journal.  To learn of the depths that mark penetrates is indeed humbling.  I can very much assure you all that dad's feelings and respect for all of you was mutual.

Thank you again for your well wishes and prayers.  Dad is truly home now.  Mom was waiting for him to show him the way in those final few steps.  I truly believe he is now in the presence of our Lord.  And somewhere up there is Murphey yelling - "Liggett  -- I thought I told you to go to ....."

God Bless all of you.

Tom Liggett

Images of Harry

we never saw

at the Beacon

Harry & Helen's 50th wedding anniversary in 2007

Helen & Harry with granddaughters,
sons Bob & Tom & Tom's wife, Sue

Harry comes to the big city of Akron

Harry with granddaughter Erin

Harry with Asher Anthony Helon,
son of Phil and Jennifer.

Harry with granddaughters Erin and Anna

From the collection of Harry's great-nephew, Eric Poston of Green, a journalism student at Kent State University

Eric with Helen & Harry