21 WFMJ archives / November 6, 1998 | Mary Lamb was honored on her 109th birthday 25 years ago at Shepherd of the Valley in Boardman. Jim Gemma, a resident, presented her with a card and a bouquet of roses. 

November 7

1998: Teachers in nine elementary schools in the Youngstown Catholic Diocese approve a three-year contract that promises smaller class sizes and an increase in the starting salary from $12,600 to $14,800 the first year and to $16,100 in the third year.

Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says he will step aside as speaker following caustic criticism within his own party for a poor showing in midterm elections.  Gingrich, who was married to Lisbon native Marianne Ginther, was a frequent visitor to the Mahoning Valley during his four years as speaker. 

Sprint has removed two pay phones from the basement of Warren's police station, which Chief Albert Timko says makes it impossible for people doing business at the booking and dispatch desk to make calls at night. "People would use the phones to call for a bond, call for a ride home, or alert family members that they were in an accident."

1983: A part-time Poland police officer, Richard E. Becker, 36, is fatally shot behind Arnold's Lounge on Route 170 while investigating a report of a prowler. The shooter fled, and by the time bloodhounds tracked Henry E. Perdue, 26, to a home on Pittsburgh-Youngstown Road, he had fled to Winchester, Va.  There he shot himself in the head and is in critical condition. 

Carlisle's Department Store will move from the Village Center at U.S. Rt. 422 and Rt. 46 in Niles to the nearby Eastwood Mall, where it will fill the space previously occupied by Montgomery-Ward. The Joseph Horne  Co. is looking at the vacated Carlisle's space. 

Operations at Carbon Limestone Co. near Lowellville have shut down at the cost of 100 jobs. 

1973: The proposed home rule charter for Trumbull County is rejected by voters, 2 to 1.

Youngstown Mayor Jack Hunter, visiting the board of elections on the night he won a third term, tells reporters the city will get a new regional post office and a downtown high-rise hotel.  

Two incumbents are defeated in Warren; The Rev. Leon Troy, president of the Board of Education, runs third in a race for two seats, and 5th Ward Councilman Daniel Sferra is defeated by Republican challenger William Shank. 

1948: The Youngstown Heart Association established headquarters in the Wick Building. 

Mrs. Frances H. Kefurt and her two children, Robert and Patricia, of Brookfield, will fly to Washington on Gen. Omar Bradley's personal plane, where she will accept the posthumous Medal of Honor awarded to her husband, S/Sgt. Gus Kefurt.

Mahoning County's first case of contagious meningitis in several years is reported by county health commissioner Dr. S.G. Patton. A six-month-old Boardman child is in South Side Hospital, and all members of the family are quarantined.