The Memorial Wall

Janie Banister, 77, died on April 9. 2024 from complications of Parkinson’s disease and dementia. She passed away peacefully in her home with her family at her bedside.

Janie was born February 22, 1947 in Salisbury, North Carolina. She was a Proud Pirate graduating from East Carolina University in 1969 with a degree in education. With her diploma in hand, Janie headed north for Virginia where she taught second grade for Chesapeake Public Schools primarily at E. W. Chittum elementary from which she retired after thirty years of service.

While living in Virginia Beach, she met Fred at a party hosted by her and her roommates. They wedded seven months after this encounter and enjoyed fifty one years of marriage which produced three children and four grandchildren.

Janie was predeceased by a son, Stephen, her parents, Burt and Nancy Hoffman, and a brother, Scott. She is survived by her loving husband, Fred, a son, John (Ellen), a daughter, Anne (Cora), and four grandchildren, Vivian, Sammy, Bryn, and Oliver, two sisters, Cynthia and Beth, a sister-in-law, Lina, and five nephews and nieces.

A visitation will be held at Sturtevant Funeral Home, Bennetts Creek Chapel, 2690 Bridge Road, Suffolk, from 6:30 to 8pm on Monday, April 15th followed by a graveside service at Meadowbrook Memorial Gardens, 4569 Shoulders Hill Road, Suffolk at 11am, Tuesday, April 16th.

Her family wants to thank her long-time team of caregivers and the staff of Gentiva Hospice for their loving care.

Retired Col. Ralph Puckett Jr., an Army Ranger who received the Medal of Honor in 2021, 71 years after the valiant combat actions in the Korean War for which he was decorated, and who became one of the most honored soldiers in U.S. military history, died April 8 at his home in Columbus, Ga. He was 97.

The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, said his wife, Jean Puckett.

At age 94, Col. Puckett traveled to the White House to receive the Medal of Honor, leaving behind both his wheelchair and walker to stand straight as President Biden draped the military’s top award for valor around his neck. The decoration for Col. Puckett was years in the making, championed by close and influential friends in the military community who wanted to upgrade his Distinguished Service Cross. He had been presented with the DSC, the second-highest award for valor, soon after a fierce battle on a Korean hilltop.

Starting on Nov. 25, 1950, then-1st Lt. Puckett and fellow soldiers with the Eighth Army Ranger Company assaulted and took command of Hill 205, frozen high ground about 60 miles from the Chinese border. It was near the outset of what became known as the Battle of Chongchon River, in which senior U.S. commanders were caught by surprise by China’s full-scale entry into the Korean War.

To succeed in his objective, he was credited with deliberately braving enemy machine-gun fire to help his men locate and kill a Chinese sniper.

The Chinese launched swarming wave attacks of small-arms and mortar fire for hours in bitterly cold temperatures. The American soldiers were outnumbered 10 to 1, according to Army accounts, but Lt. Puckett, despite being wounded by a hand grenade, helped his men defeat five successive Chinese counterattacks that stretched into the early morning of Nov. 26.

On the sixth Chinese counterattack, the Rangers were overrun after Lt. Puckett was told that further artillery fire was unavailable to support them. He and his men engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and Lt. Puckett suffered additional wounds from mortars that left him unable to move. He ordered his soldiers to abandon him to enable them to have a better chance of withdrawing alive.

Two privates first class, Billy G. Walls and David L. Pollock, carried him to safety. They later received the Silver Star for their valor in saving him.

In an oral history project, Lt. Puckett recalled seeing Chinese soldiers attacking U.S. service members with bayonets 15 yards away from him when Walls and Pollock arrived by his side. He said that he was glad the men disobeyed his order to leave him.

“I wouldn’t be talking to you today,” Lt. Puckett said. “They saved my neck.”

For 18 years beginning in 2003, retired Army Lt. Col. John Lock, a historian who had written extensively on the Rangers, sought to have Col. Puckett recognized with the Medal of Honor.

In 2021, Jean Puckett told The Washington Post that her husband felt the Distinguished Service Cross was “honor enough,” but Lock and other members of Col. Puckett’s immediate family wanted to see the effort through. It required extensive research on what happened during the battle and the Army reassessing whether Col. Puckett’s actions deserved the Medal of Honor.

Among those who advocated Col. Puckett’s Medal of Honor were Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and some of the Army’s top officers, including Gens. Joseph Votel and Stanley McChrystal, according to documents previously reviewed by The Post. Both generals had encountered Col. Puckett as Rangers.

At the White House ceremony, Biden recalled with a smile that Col. Puckett wondered if it would be possible to mail him the Medal of Honor, rather than holding an event with fanfare.

“Korea is sometimes called the ‘Forgotten War,’ but those men who were there under Lieutenant Puckett’s command, they will never forget his bravery,” Biden said during the White House ceremony in 2021. “They will never forget that he was right by their side for every minute of it.”

Col. Puckett, in remarks at the Pentagon that week, called for unity in the United States.

“While we have many enemies of this country today who want to see us fall, there’s no greater enemy than ourselves,” he said. “We have divided ourselves into tribes and closed our ears to all who would not think we would do what we needed to do.”

alph Puckett Jr. was born in Tifton, Ga., on Dec. 8, 1926. His father ran an insurance business and wholesale grocery, and his mother was a homemaker. He graduated from the Baylor School, a preparatory school in Chattanooga, Tenn., and then in 1949 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he was captain of the boxing team. War broke out in Korea the next year.

His deployment in Korea ended prematurely with his injuries. After returning to the United States, he convalesced at a hospital at Fort Benning, Ga., where he met his future wife, Jean Martin. They married Nov. 26, 1952 — two years to the day after he was nearly killed.

After healing from his wounds, Col. Puckett returned to duty and held assignments in Georgia, at West Point and in West Germany. In 1967, he deployed to Vietnam as a lieutenant colonel with the 101st Airborne Division and was awarded a second Distinguished Service Cross. That honor was for landing by helicopter during an active firefight, maneuvering through a heavily mined area, and then personally occupying a foxhole and braving enemy fire throughout the night on Aug. 13, 1967.

“He heard cries for help during an intense mortar barrage later that night and dashed through a hail of flying shrapnel to give aid,” according to a copy of his award citation. “He personally carried the two wounded soldiers back to safety and used his skill and experience as a truly professional soldier to treat their wounds. When rescue helicopters came in, he repeatedly refused extraction for himself and directed that the casualties be evacuated.”

His other decorations included two awards each of the Silver Star and Bronze Star Medal, and five awards of the Purple Heart, according to his Army biography. Combined, the decorations make him among the most decorated soldiers in U.S. military history, Lock said.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two children, Martha Lane Wilcoxson and Thomas M. Puckett; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Jean Raney, died in 2004.

Col. Puckett retired from the military in 1971, then spent years working for Outward Bound, a nonprofit focused on outdoor education. When the Army Ranger Hall of Fame was established in 1992 at Fort Benning (renamed Fort Moore last year), Col. Puckett was a member of the inaugural class.

Well into his 80s, he hiked training ranges at Benning and mentored younger soldiers. He stressed the need for Rangers not to talk down to other soldiers in the Army, Votel said.

“He always reminded me: Show your class. Show your civility. Don’t let things get you down and distract you from your mission,” Votel said.

A VETERAN of the Falklands War who was appointed as an Associate of the Royal Red Cross by Queen Elizabeth has died after a battle with Parkinson’s.

Trevor Oldroyd was born in Walton, however moved to Carlton at a young age and grew up on Wood Lane.

He joined the Royal Navy after a stint working at Wharncliffe Woodmoor 123 Colliery, serving in the medical branch as a registered general nurse, before eventually becoming a registered clinical nurse tutor.

During this time he served in hospitals in Malta, Mauritius and Plymouth, as well as the Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport where he trained junior members and was responsible for the clinical training of members of the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service.

In the Falklands War he was part of a medical team mainly responsible for repatriating injured personnel, and following the war was posted to the Naval Board of Survey which decided on the future of injured and sick soldiers.

Many were unable to continue in the navy following their service, so Trevor helped them readjust to civilian life and make sure they had all the benefits and help available to them from their local services.

In the June 1985 Queen’s Birthday Honours List Trevor was appointed an Associate of the Royal Red Cross – he received his decoration at Buckingham Palace from Queen Elizabeth II.

He returned home to Carlton in 2002, where he lived with his wife Beryl till his death at 88 years old.

Beryl said: “His family – wife Beryl, son Trevor, daughter Tina and their families and his step daughters Vanessa and Ann – will miss him and have been overwhelmed by messages from current and ex Naval personnel remembering how he helped them during his service life.”

Kuhnmuench, Dr. Paul "PJ" James Devoted physician, husband and father Paul James Kuhnmuench, 75, died peacefully on Saturday, April 6, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Paul was born on April 22, 1948, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Joan and Andrew Kuhnmuench. He grew up primarily in Lansing, Michigan. Paul received his BA degree from John Carroll University and MD from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He moved to Minnesota in 1974 to do his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota. It was here that he met his wife, Toni Magnuson and they were married on August 2, 1975. Paul was passionate and committed to affordable quality care for seniors as a geriatric specialist in Maplewood, Minnesota throughout his career. Paul enjoyed spending time with his family, golfing, playing tennis, skiing, watching his children and grandchildren play sports and was a daily jogger for most of his life. Paul is survived by his wife Toni Magnuson, children Emily (Brian Walvatne) Kuhnmuench, Timothy (Shannon McLeland) Kuhnmuench and Stefanie (Alex Liu) Kuhnmuench, his adored grandchildren Otis, Selby and Hank Walvatne, Grace and Hazel Kuhnmuench and Willow Liu, as well as his ten siblings. 

Jeff passed away peacefully in St Luke's Hospice, Plymouth, on Thursday 4th April following a battle with Parkinson's Disease and Dementia. He was surrounded by his loving family who will miss him dearly. Jeff was a loving husband, father and grandfather.

Dr. Odean M. Severseike died at Fairview Hospital in Edina, Minnesota on April 4th, 2024 from complications from Parkinson's Disease. Odean was born in Madison, South Dakota on April 3, 1934 to Rev. Otis Milford Severseike and Olga Geneva (Sheldahl) Severseike. Odean graduated high school in 1952 in Belmond, Iowa. He went to St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, graduated in 1956 and went on to the University of Minnesota Medical School. Odean graduated medical school in 1960 and joined Belzer Clinic in South Minneapolis. This clinic was renamed to Family Medical Clinic and then sold to Fairview Health Services where he worked until 2000. Odean married Phyllis (Lee) in 1957, also from Belmond, Iowa. They were married until 1969 when they divorced, having 3 children. In 1971, Odean married Arlene Smith in Bloomington, MN who was a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. Arlene passed away in 2004 as did his first wife, Phyllis. Odean had spent his retirement years in Florida, living in Punta Gorda and North Port, where he partnered with Barbara DiCocco. In 2021, Odean's Parkinson's disease had progressed to where he moved back to Edina at the Aurora on France assisted living facility to be closer to family. Odean is survived by his 3 children, Lori (Kenny) Horns, Jeffrey (Mildred) and Mark (Paula), 9 grandchildren (Nicolas, Jacob, David, Luke, Kelly, Ben, Jackie, Elissa, Micah) and 4 great grandchildren.

Arthur Queen, a longtime Baltimore-area funeral director and owner of two funeral homes, died of Parkinson’s disease April 1 at BridgingLife Dove House, a hospice facility in Westminster. He was 83.

Mr. Queen was born in Nutter Fort, West Virginia, to Minter A. Queen Sr., a pottery maker, and Bessie Mae Queen, a homemaker. He was the youngest of five children.

He started working at his uncle’s snack bar in Nutter Fort at the age of 9.

“He was always very busy,” said Wilma Brandenburg, his sister. “He always had a lot to do.”

As a teenager, he decided he wanted to become a funeral director. Mr. Queen would often accompany his father when he visited friends at various funeral homes in Clarksburg,  West Virginia.

“He said he always wanted to be a funeral director in high school,” his sister said. “Whenever they asked what do you want to be growing up, that’s what he would say.”

After graduating from the old Roosevelt Wilson High School in Clarksburg in 1958, he went to Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science, formerly known as Cincinnati School of Embalming.

Mr. Queen started in the funeral business over 60 years ago at Davis-Weaver Funeral Home in West Virginia when he was a teenager, his sister said.

In 1992, Mr. Queen purchased what is now Burrier-Queen Funeral Home and Crematory, P.A. in Winfield in Carroll County. Until he died, the Sykesville resident was involved with all aspects of the funeral home as owner, president, director and crematory operator. He also owned Loring Byers Funeral Directors in Randallstown.

Arthur Queen enjoyed woodworking and creating stained and fused glass.

“He was the epitome of a true funeral professional,” said Jim Covey, vice president of Burrier-Queen. “The community has lost one of a kind.”

He was a member of the former Liberty Exchange Club, a community service organization, Covey said.

Thomas George Rocks, 82, born in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania on March 31st, 1942, the son of the late Hugh N. and Margaret M. Rocks, died on April 1, 2024, in Portland, Oregon, from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

Tom (Dad, Poppa, Tommy, Uncle Tom, Dr. Rocks), a vibrant, creative lover of people and community, will be fondly remembered for his dedication to all he put his heart into, including but not limited to his immediate family and large extended family including surviving siblings, Hugh F. Rocks, M. Angela Rocks Shriver and especially his twin sister, Mary C. Rocks, nieces and nephews, his parishes, many educational institutions (particularly Pennsylvania State University where he earned his doctorate degree in Counselor Education), his clients, fellow music and theatre folks, and the greater Waynesboro community.

During the two decades he resided in Portland, Oregon, he was an active member of St. Pius X Catholic church and a volunteer for St. Vincent de Paul Society. Most notably he sang in the church choir and directed the Sweetheart Cabaret for several of those years.

He was a member of the Portland Symphonic Choir from 2009-2015 when his Parkinson’s symptoms no longer allowed him to sing. At that time, he transitioned into both leading and participating in many Parkinson’s Resource programs and events.

Through all 22 years, Tom was a very involved grandfather to Julia Katherine Connolly, Alexander William Connolly, and Fenn Thomas Connolly.

It would be impossible to enumerate the many organizations, activities and leadership roles Tom participated in during the 60 years prior to moving to Portland. Some highlights he will be remembered for are: St. Andrew’s Catholic Church member, his career with the Waynesboro Area School district where he was director of the All-school student and teacher theatrical productions. He was a committee leader of Waynesboro Summer Jubilee, a member of a barbershop quartet “Four the Good Times,” a weekly contributor of “Family Matters” column to the Record Herald newspaper and myriad more community service projects.

Tom approached all people with an open mind, open heart and open arms. He touched many with his empathic words and warm hugs. He often noted that “it’s not what you get from other people; it’s what you can give to them.”

Tom was preceded in death by his son Matthew Thomas, and his sisters Ellen Mary Rocks Fulton and Margaret Elizabeth Rocks Camilletti Bosold.

Doctor Edward Nelson Smolar, 80, died on March 30, 2024. The cause of his death relates to complications from Parkinson’s Disease. Dr. Smolar, born and raised in Brooklyn and a 44-year resident of Boca Raton, worked as a medical doctor for more than 50 years in New York City and South Florida, specializing in Endocrinology and Internal Medicine. After earning a Bachelor of Science in biological science, with honors, at Union College in 1964, Dr. Smolar completed a Doctor of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in 1968. A true Renaissance man, he achieved a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science from Nova Southeastern University in 1985 and 1990, respectively. Dr. Smolar was board-certified in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism, and geriatric medicine. He was also a chartered life underwriter, chartered financial consultant and a certified financial planner.

Dr. Smolar dedicated himself to a life of learning and serving others. Recognized in the medical community as a master diagnostician, Dr. Smolar – revered by his patients and colleagues as “the Midnight Cowboy” – was known for keeping late hours and taking as much time as needed with his patients, often at the expense of his schedule. Dr. Smolar served his country on behalf of the U.S Public Health Service as a surgeon between 1968 and 1971; honorably discharged with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. His research has been published in various medical journals; he was named by Research Council of America as one of America’s Top Doctors, and he has been cited in approximately 20 editions of Marquis Who’s Who, including Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare, and Who’s Who in the World.

In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Smolar enjoyed teaching, including as an adjunct professor of medicine at the State University of New York, the University of Miami and Nova Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine. His hobbies included studying history and competitive ballroom dancing.

Dr. Smolar is survived by his wife of 50 years, Sharon Smolar, his sons, Todd and Gregory, his daughters-in-law, Jennifer and Roben, and his grandchildren, Jocey, Joshua, Gabriel and Daniella.

BLUE HILL, MAINE—Christopher B. Nelson died on March 28, 2024, from advanced Parkinson’s disease.

Chris was born in Winchester, Mass., on June 16, 1936, the son of John and Kathleen Nelson. He grew up in Quincy and went on to earn a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from MIT in 1958. Young daughters of his family’s friends set him up with his future wife, Roberta “Bobbie” Martin. She was the love of his life, and they married in June of 1960.

Chris retired in 2001 after 36 years of service with the federal government, first at the Lexington Lab (HHS), and then with the newly established EPA in Washington, D.C. In its Department of Radiation Programming, he was an expert in modeling radioisotope transport and estimating radiation dose and risk from exposure. His work provided an important basis for EPA’s radiation protection regulations and their guidance to other agencies and the public. In addition to his own work, he was an integral part of Bobbie’s ministry, from co-writing curricula to teaching Sunday school.

In 2001 he and Bobbie built their dream home on the Bagaduce River. Chris volunteered at the Sedgwick Elementary School, tutoring students in math and listening to them read. He sang with the Bagaduce Chorale for many years and served as their treasurer for several years. He was an active participant in town meetings.

Chris enjoyed sailing, kayaking, traveling, reading and keeping up with the news. He and his wife were lifelong proponents of social justice.

In 2015 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. As the disease progressed, he moved to Parker Ridge Assisted Living where he received wonderful care and support from the staff.

Chris was predeceased by his wife of 54 years and is survived by their daughters Heather of Surry, Maine, Jennifer of Portland, Maine, Joy and her husband John Saams of Gambrills, Md.; their three grandchildren: Jack Saams and his wife Margaret Zelenski, James Saams and his wife Franki Wilson, and Julia Saams of Md.; and his brother John Nelson and his wife Irene of Amherst, Mass. He was predeceased by his brothers Peter and Mark.