Oceanside/island park
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Remembering the Holocaust
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Vol. 57 No. 24
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JUNE 9 - 15, 2022
‘Oh my God, it really is her’
MAURIcE MAyEs sERVED both his country and his community with his military bravery and his electrical know-how.
Children’s author surprises school #3 students with visit my books to her classes every year, and she was really enthusiastic about them and would The door to literary learning always post pictures. One year opened, quite literally, for Wendy she even came to Boston, where I Rossberg’s second-grade class at live, to meet me for coffee.” Oaks School #3 on The books tell M ay 1 8 wh e n the story of a Jack re n ow n e d ch i l Ru s s e l l t e r r i e r dren’s author Vicn a m e d Fe n w ay toria J. Coe walked and a girl named into the classroom. Hattie who move The surprise visit from their apartlater caught the ment in the city to attention of huna house in the subdreds on social urbs and the chalmedia. lenges they face Rossberg’s stuthere. The narradents have been tive, however, is fans of Coe’s “Fenf r o m Fe n w ay ’s way and Hattie” point of view. series, and Ross“Point of view berg and Coe develin literature is oped a friendship very hard for a in 2017 when the yo u n g ch i l d t o books were made a understand,” Rossselection for that berg said. “As soon ye a r ’s “ G l o b a l WENDy RossBERG as I started reading Read Aloud” pro- Second-grade teacher, the ‘Fenway and gram. Hattie’ books, the School #3 “I did a lot of kids were like, ‘Oh, videos and Q and the dog’s telling A’s for classes, and Mrs. Ross- the story,’ and they get it.” berg’s class was one of the very In May, Coe released a active participants, and they new spinoff series of “Fenway came onto my radar,” Coe said. and Hattie” geared to younger “We stayed in touch over the years because she was reading Continued on page 5
By JAKE PEllEGRINo jpellegrino@liherald.com
T
Courtesy Diane Tamburello
A hero’s farewell
One of last remaining Word War II Navy vets in Island Park dies Memorial Day weekend By JAKE PEllEGRINo jpellegrino@liherald.com
Although they were sad to see him go, all who knew Maurice B. “Sparky” Mayes, one of the last remaining U.S. Navy veterans of World War II living in Island Park, say that his coincidental death on Memorial Day weekend, on May 29, was one final thankyou from his country for his service. He was 96. “Many people have said to us that it was very apropos
that he decided to go on that weekend,” his daughter Diane Tamburello said. Mayes was born on April 27, 1926, in Springfield, Tennessee, and, in the throes of the Great Depression, was raised by a single mother. In June of 1943, at age 17, he enlisted in the Navy, and completed basic training in San Diego. Later he was sent to the prestigious V-12 Navy College Training Program in Ames, Iowa, to study electrical engi-
neering. Members of Mayes’s family said that although he was proud of his service, he wasn’t one to brag, or even talk about it often. “He was a quiet man of very little words, and never braggadocious,” Tamburello said. “He had little anecdotes here and there. He talked about growing up in his Navy days and things like that, but that’s it. For instance, we didn’t even know he was stranded on Continued on page 10
he kids were in disbelief. Some of them were grabbing their books, looking at her photo in the book, then looking up at her and then back at their book.