THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2007
VOL. 12 NO. 24
50 cents
NEWS HEADLINES HEALTH - Nanticoke Health Services will soon have a new administrator. Page 2 ROBBERY - A robber wearing a Halloween mask and carrying a gun robs the Royal Farms. Page 2 CAMPAIGN - About a dozen owners of businesses and rental properties in the city are organizing a letter writing and phone campaign. Page 4 ENTREPRENEURS - A Delaware company with Sussex County ties has received top honors by Entrepreneur Magazine. Page 6 VOLUNTEERS - A mother and daughter are serving the Delmar Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary. Page 8 AT LAST! Last Thursday, Galestown resident Joanne Cooke hiked over to the Mayor’s house to announce, “they’re here; they’re here!” Page 10 MENACING - State Police charged two teenagers with aggravated menacing, possession of a weapon in a safe school zone. Page 14 HOUSE OF HOPE - Plans for the Shiloh House of Hope, a residential Christian-based treatment center and school for troubled teens, is stirring up controversy. Page 16 FESTIVAL - The Apple Scrapple Festival is coming soon to Bridgeville. Coverage starts on page 17 STANDARDS - Woodbridge School District is working hard to meet state standards. Page 59 BLUE JAYS AND BLUE RAIDERS - The Seaford and Woodbridge varsity field hockey teams squared off last week in Bridgeville. Page 45 STARS OF THE WEEK - A Seaford soccer player and a Seaford field hockey player are this week’s Seaford Stars of the Week. Page 49
INSIDE THE STAR BUSINESS BULLETIN BOARD CHURCH CLASSIFIEDS ENTERTAINMENT FRANK CALIO GENE BLEILE GOURMET HEALTH LETTERS
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LYNN PARKS MOVIES OBITUARIES ON THE RECORD PAT MURPHY POLICE JOURNAL SNAPSHOTS SPORTS TIDES/WEATHER TODD CROFFORD
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Florence Johnson Foddrell, seated at far left, is shown with some of her students at graduation. She helped the girls make their dresses for the graduation.
Frederick Douglass Alumni to honor teacher Florence Johnson Foddrell By Lynn R. Parks Alumni of Frederick Douglass School, Seaford, will hold a reunion Saturday evening. Guest of honor will be Florence Johnson Foddrell, who taught home economics and science at the school for African-American children for 19 years. “I taught there a long time ago,” said Foddrell, 91, Parksley, Va. “There have been a lot of changes since then. When they told me they were going to honor me, I just couldn’t believe it.” Foddrell will be presented with a plaque honoring her as “a teacher with dignity and class.” In addition to teaching home economics, she coordinated the school’s annual fashion show and helped girls make dresses for their graduations.
“It is no secret that she was an excellent teacher who taught the students how to sew and cook,” said Geraldine Jones, Dover, chairwoman of the reunion. Under Foddrell’s direction, the students managed the school cafeteria, preparing hot meals, canning fruits and vegetables and decorating cakes. Foddrell, a graduate of Delaware State College (now University), went to Frederick Douglass School in 1937 as a substitute teacher, when she was still Miss Johnson. After a week there, she was offered a permanent position. “Seaford and Frederick Douglass were never quite the same again,” Jones said. “Miss Johnson, a strikingly beautiful young lady, brought her gifts and talents to the challenge.” Foddrell said that as an only child
growing up in Philadelphia, she had advantages that few African-American children in Seaford had. “I was able to do things that other people could not do, and the parents in Seaford would listen to what I said,” she said. Girls at Fred Douglass, which housed grades one through 11, always wore white dresses for graduation. The first year that she was there, Foddrell said, she noticed that some of the dresses were nice and others “looked like the girls had been scrubbing floors in them.” The next year, she bought patterns and material and had the girls in the graduating class make their own dresses. “Miss Johnson would measure each dress from the floor so that all dresses Continued to page 4
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