Chester CountyPRESS
www.chestercounty.com
Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas
Volume 150, No. 27
INSIDE
A step forward Aug. 6 at Borderland Vineyards Landenberg Day: in preserving One month away, and history First strategic landscapes plans completed for Brandywine Battlefield
Greenville & Hockessin Life magazine
60 Cents
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
By John Chambless Staff Writer
From last December through early June, the public face of the Brandywine Battlefield was the “closed” sign on Route 1 in Chadds Ford. The park, which is operated by the volunteer Brandywine Battlefield Park Associates, is usually closed for maintenance Tour the rich from December through world of children’s early March, but a renovation project last winter illustration...1B ran longer than expected, and then the visitors center was found to be structurally unsound, requiring further emergency repairs. That led to the prolonged shutdown that had many people wondering if the park would ever reopen.
But finally, on June 8, the staff got the building up and running, and the park is open to visitors for the summer. The bad news and the prolonged closure was offset last week by the completion of the first specific Battlefield Landscapes Plans that assess aspects of the sprawling 35,000 acres of the battlefield and recommend specific steps toward preservation. A celebration was held at the Radley Run Country Club on the evening of June 29 for the many groups involved in making sure the Brandywine Battlefield isn’t lost to development and neglect. In a posting last week on their Facebook page, the Continued on Page 2A
years in the making
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer It is one month to Landenberg Day, and organizer Joseph Birmingham feels the entire weight of the town’s history, its people and the wish to use the event as a means of giving the town a definition, all on his back. Written in black Magic Marker on a white board in his Phoenix Press office are the names of the 25 vendors who have committed to participate – food vendors, artisans, conservation experts, historians, and three musical acts. The Landenberg Day social media has been clogged with interested persons who write that they are not only attending the Aug. 6 gathering at Borderland Vineyards, but are bringing friends and family as well. Registration for the event is still open, but it’s
Photo by Richard L. Gaw
Borderland Vineyards will serve as the site of Landenberg Day, which will be held on Aug. 6.
one month before the event, and already, more than 675 have committed to attend. “We may be pushing it to 1,000,” Birmingham said. “We don’t want to restrict anyone from coming, but we don’t want so many people to attend that no one can enjoy the event because of the large crowd.” Organized by Phoenix Press – a Landenberg-
incorporated publishing company that Birmingham owns – and sponsored by several area businesses, Landenberg Day will feature 18 vendors, seven food vendors, including four specialty food trucks; tours of the vineyard and wine tasting; kid games; as well as local music performed by the Rose Project, guitarist E.B. Continued on Page 3A
Oxford man retells stories of heroism
Volunteers work to refurbish Mount Calvary Cemetery...8A
World War II flight engineer: ‘I am no hero’ By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Jane Lee Hooker is bringing the blues to Kennett Square...1B
INDEX Calendar of Events......3B Classified....................7B Obituaries...................5B Opinion........................7A
To Subscribe call 610.869.5553
Police Blotter...............6B
© 2007 The Chester County Press
In the Oxford home he shares with his son, Bill Fili speaks about his experiences as a flight engineer in World War II with the clarity of a lecturer. His storytelling is lacquered with perfect pitch and pauses, in a voice that does not want to willingly accept that it is now 92 years old. He has told his story Photo by Richard L. Gaw often, at air shows, at Oxford resident Bill Fili, a World War II engineer and flight gunner, has dedicated many years to telling libraries and schools, and in three books dedicated audiences about his war experiences.
to his experiences as a war veteran and a prisoner of war in Romania in 1944. That he is still here to tell it is a gift of oral history that is now in its very last vestiges. The Greatest Generation is now a vastly dwindling one; of the 16.1 million World War II veterans, fewer than 1.5 million are still alive, and they are dying at a rate of more than 600 a day. Therefore, every one of his sentences clings and sticks with a particular kind of fervency. As Fili spins the tale of what
happened to him nearly eight decades ago – as he brushes off history and resurrects facts – there is an unseen but undeniable presence that permeates the still air of a story well told. Slowly, word by word, the white-haired man sitting before the visitor is no longer there. He has been replaced by the 18-year-old Bill Fili from Philadelphia, and the kid from Fishtown takes over from where the old man left off, into a black-andwhite film reel of his life. Continued on Page 5A
New biography looks at the life and career of the Squire of Kennett Square By Steven Hoffman Staff Writer
baseball that included, in significant ways, baseball legends like Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, and Jackie Robinson. Craig is a professional writer from New Jersey who has freelanced for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, as well as the Chester
County Press and its family of regional magazines when he lived in Chester County. He loves the game of baseball, and played it at Florida State University. Each January, he serves as the master of ceremonies for the Kennett Old Timers Baseball Association’s annual banquet. The Kennett Old
Timers Baseball Association celebrates the achievements of local baseball players and Pennock is a local hero for some baseball fans in the area. Craig said that a conversation with two of that organization’s leaders, Bob Burton and Prissy Roberts, actually set him on the path to writing a book about
When Keith Craig started work on a biography about Herb Pennock, he knew that the Squire of Kennett Square’s accomplishments on the baseball field were great. Pennock is considered one of the game’s top southpaw hurlers of all time. The quintessential “crafty lefthander,” Pennock has been immortalized in the Baseball Hall of Fame as a result of his 241 victories over 22 major league seasons that included four world championships with the mighty New York Yankees teams of the 1920 and early 1930s. But Craig wanted to focus as much on Pennock the man as he did on Pennock the immortalized pitcher. The result of five years of research is “Herb Pennock: Baseball’s Faultless Pitcher,” which was published this spring by Rowman & Littlefield. The 344-page book traces Pennock’s life from the time he was growing up in one of Kennett Square’s Courtesy photo most affluent families to Herb Pennock rode with the hounds, and was an avid huntsman who traveled often his extraordinary career in to Canada with teammates. He spoiled his dogs, in this case Jocko.
Pennock. “I have to give credit to Bob and Prissy,” Craig said. “They were the driving forces behind the book.” What really inspired Craig to slide Pete Rose-style into the project was a lingering allegation of racism that had been leveled against Continued on Page 3A
Harsher penalties for DUI drivers By Uncle Irvin In a late May edition of the Chester County Press, more than five DUIs were listed on its weekly Police Blotter. It’s safe to assume that if five were caught by the police in one week, Continued on Page 3A