Len Lear

In 1963, after dropping out of Hahnemann Medical School, I took a job with the Phillies as an in-game vendor. For several months, I walked up and down the right field steps for two or three hours at every home game, selling peanuts and popcorn. (I never was promoted to selling beer and hot dogs, where the real money was.)

Long-time Germantown resident and violinist Booker Rowe, who in 1968 became the first Black musician to play with the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, died July 31. He was 85.

WDAS-FM is a commercial radio station that is widely regarded as the originator of the adult urban contemporary format, originally mixing album-oriented, rhythm & blues hits along with blue-eyed soul, and for the last 40 years a mix of contemporary R&B. On Sept. 1, 1959, WDAS-FM signed on the air, joining its sister station, WDAS-AM, which was already a powerful music and news voice throughout the region and nation. The two stations were owned by Max Leon, who had acquired WDAS in 1950.

In March of 1978, David Braverman parked a school bus dubbed “Max” on Sansom Street on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus. LeBus was an immediate hit.

One of the unlikely stars in WDAS history is journalist and author Wynne Alexander, who has been a champion for many decades of causes important to the Black community and social justice activists.

In March of 1978, David Braverman parked a school bus dubbed “Max” on Sansom Street on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus. At first, he once told me, he had no culinary training other than advice passed down from his father’s deli and snippets gleaned from the cookbooks he’d paged through. But he had an idea and three guiding principles: “Make everything from scratch, use only the best ingredients, and try everything.”

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” – David Brinkley

As a passionate animal lover, I have always had an attraction to works of art depicting nature and animals. Fortunately for me, in my job at the Local I have been introduced to many talented local …

Peter Yeomans, Ph.D, M.Ed, a longtime Germantown resident and clinical psychologist for the Veterans Administration (VA), died unexpectedly at work of cardiac arrhythmia on Aug. 28 at age 58.

As a passionate animal lover, I have always had an attraction to works of art depicting nature and animals. Fortunately for me, in my job at the Local I have been introduced to many talented local artists over many years. But I have never seen wildlife paintings that were more stunning than those of Mt. Airy artist (and professional singer) Lynnette Shelley.