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THURSDAY EDITION Ch'appaqua-. Library Chappaqua, /. - E D I T I ON > Serving Chappaqua and theTown of Neto Cattle VOL. XLV.—No. 49. TWO SECTIONS MT/ KISCO, N. Y,, THURSDAY; DECEMBER 6, 1956 24 PAGES 5 CENTS A COPY—$4 A YEAR BOWED BY TRAGEDY: Ronald S. Hall sits through burial service at Mt. Kisco's St. Francis Cemetery behind caskets of his wife and three children, who perished in a fire at their home early Saturday morning. Seated on his left is his sister, Mrs. Dorothy Welch of Mt. Kisco, and on his right his wife's sister, Miss Doris Farrell of St. Petersburg, Fla. Other mourners are members of the family and: close friends. Rev. Thomas P Cahill of St. Francis Church, who gave last rites of the Catholic Church Saturday morning and sang requiem mass Tuesday morning, prays at right. Some 120 persons attended mass, many of them UN colleagues of Mr. and Mrs. Hall and Mt. Kisco Fire Department members, who served as pallbearers. —Staff photo by Litchfield KITCHEN where fire began Saturday morning in Ronald S. Hall house outside Mt. Kisco is inside door oh right in this photo. It quickly spread to living room (picture window) \on.op- positd wall from kitchen and to the bedrooms in the ether end of thje building. Almost all walls, made of pressed wood chip, board, were burned out. Mrs. Hall apparently took two older children, John, 7, and Spencer, 4, from bedroom on the side of the building shown here to bedroom on opposite side where Patricia, 2, was sleeping. All four bodies were found near closet there, next t o double window. When Hall came back from phon ing for fire department, he tried to get in by kitchen door on right, was cut and • burned'as heat exploded glass and flames shot out. Staff photos'by Litchfie,ld-and Ann Conlon iremen t Rites For Fire Victims By JOHN J. MALONEY MT. KISCO—Mt. Kisco Fire De partment did all it cpuld for the family of Ronald S. Hall. Some 150 volunteers from the department fought in every way they could to get to Mr. Hall 's \wife and three children as their Byram Lake Road home, blazed furiously early Saturday morning. Tuesday morning 27 members of the department served ^as pall- bears at the funeral of Mrs?-Hall, 40, and her three children, John, seven, Spencer, four, and Pa tricia, two. % The missa cantata requiem at St. Francis of Assist Church and burial afterwards in St. Francis Cemetery -were the final scenes In one of the\ cruel'est tragedies In Mt. Kisco or Westchester annals. In the space of half an, 'hour early Saturday 'mornirig a blaze ftl *• Ml «f. grease -on- the stove in the Hall kitchen raged out of control and wiped out Mr. Hall's family and the six-room house lie and his wife, Frances, had been building for five years. Mr. Hall, 45, a United Nations verbatim\ reporter and World War H RAF test pilot, was burned and badly cut in frantic a'tempts. to get back into his blazing house when he returned from giving the fire alarm t o his nearest neighbor some 300 yards away. - At least a half-dozen firemen\ were cut by glass splintered by the furnace-like heat as they tried to get into the house to bring out Mrs. Hall and the children. They were treated at the scene and at Northern Westchester Hospital. The neighbor, Waldo H. Backer, and;firemen persuaded Mr. Hall to let himself be .taken to the hos pital before his jwife's and 'Chil dren 's bodies were found. .He re mained in the hospital under treat ment for cuts and burns and shock until 12:30 pjn. Saturday. He was then released to be taken,, dazed, to his sister's home here -and fi nally to the-home of a friend in Crestwood. He was described by relatives Monday night as a man \very very quiet,\ flnmng it hard to realize he Is victim in a situation that finds its best parallel in Greek tragic drama. He has been under sedation much of the time. The county medical examiner's •office ruled the four deaths-were caused by asphyxiation due to carbon monoxide. Mrs. Hall and the three-children were definitely not burned to death, the'ME said. Here Is an account of the fire from reports by Mt. Kisco First Assistant Fire Chief James Mat- .toni, who was in charge ,at the flrerNew Castle Police Chief-Mau rice Hayes, who was at toe ~ fire and conducted the investigation; and Mr. Hall's sister, Mrs. Dorothy Welch of 61 Spring Street. Mr'. Hah, a British subject,' had returned from a long UN Gen eral Assembly session Friday night and cooked a favorite snack, fish and chips, in a deep fat fryer on the stove. He was watching TV in the living room at about 1 ajn. when Mrs. Hall, who had.'been reading in their bedroom, went to the kitchen to turn on the gas under a pot of coffee. She apparently turned the wrong jet and did not realize Jtl Fat in the frying pan heated and 'caught fire, igniting curtains- In the kit chen and spilling over < onto the telephone on a stand next to the stove. Mr. Hall told his sister he could have lifted the pot up and safely .thrown it-out at one \.point it (Continued on-Page'j. Six) v MVo Flag, *.,2Vo Skating j. CHAPPAQUA—A group of : > 'glrl skaters was ordered off •;4the duck pond* by police last --Saturday with the warning i .'that the ice was too thin for ^safety. ~i' \The children or their par- .Vi.ents should know better than *; to skate 'when the ice Is less iJAhan four and a half inches 'thick,\ the Westchester State ;iv ; Park^ Commission told this ;>/-xiewspaper Tuesday when ques- ;^tion'ed about safe conditions. We can't police every pond ; !iin£the county all the time,\ AHh'e- spokesman explained. .^'JWheri it's safe to ska'te^there ^will' be a white flag out. At .''.any other time, skating is il legal.\ nigh School Ready In September Construction SOn Schedule \.CHAPPAQUA — The new high school will'be finished in June and will definitely be in use next, fall, Anthony Davin assured the District 4 Board of Education at its meeting Monday night. Some of the classrooms will be finished by the end of April and the rest by the end of June, he said. Buildings A, D, G, and H, which house the gymnasium, aud itorium, shops, cafeteria and lib rary, are behind the classrooms in liheVof completion but will be .ready'by the time school opens, •he-^aid. ' , ' ^We have betwen .55.and-65 men ^^jfee'^bbfeverj ;dayX -and ihings \W*TOtogpi'ettj^jjchi'accordiiig tfe <|&eo|ale,'* he told &e board./'The. r'o'ofsare up on'the classroomsand are going hp on the shops and library buildings. The planks are up on the roof of the gym, and 90 per cent of the classrooms have been glazed.\ The eight-room addition will be finished early in September, and the problem of rock and fill there is still under study, he said. At the same meeting the board approved general account bills of $7,739.53, building- account bills of $702.78, and internal account bills of $68.25. The question of general liability insurance coverage, which had been discussed previously by the bpard, was settled by a vote to raise the coverage from $300,000 for any one accident t o $1,000,000, to cover all individuals involved in a major disaster. Coverage for one individual remains at $100,- 000. Fire Report Accepted A report by Edward Carney, fire inspector, approving the safe- con duct of the school, was accepted by the board. District Principal Douglas G. Grafflin reported to the board on his work regarding the Board of Cooperative Educational Services. The principals of this district have contacted the state education de partment and will ask support of other districts to back legis lation to change the fee system so that BOCES services are paid for according to their use rather than according to property valu ation, he said. The board also agreed to pay Bedford Central District $224 for 32 children resident in Distrio* 4 attending St. Francis School in Mt. Kisco and $130 for 26 children attending' classes fofr the mentally retarded. * *• The transfer of Miss Bessie Winters from the Horace Greeley cafeteria, where she worked half- time as a.food handler, to a full time position at Roaring Brook cafeteria at a salary of $1,400 was approved. * Seniors To Give 'Mrs. McThing' CHAPPAQUA — A flash from Horace Greeley School reminds the public that \Mrs. McThing\ will be presented Friday and Sat urday by the senior class under the direction of John Sweet, new dramatics teacher. When the word went out, the set committee-' was applying the final dab of paint to -the scenery, and hammering the last nail in the sets. The costume committee was on ite-way to the police'sta tion to borrow the last two cos tumes, i Tickets will be on sale at Cad- man's until the 11th hour. Figured At $9,678 Betsy Brown Named Editorial Assistant CHAPPAQUA—Betsy Brown of Somerstown Road, Millwood, has been named e'ditorial as sistant on the Chappaqua Sun edition of this newspaper. In' private life Mrs. Charles H. Brown, she has been associ ated With PATENT TRADER since the middle of October when Editorial Assistant Phyl lis. Cobbs was forced to leave because of a back 'ailment. Mrs. Cobbs is now on an indef inite ieave of absence while she is. convalescing' after - recent surgery. Mrs. Brown, a native of Ber keley, Calif., studied at the University of California and the University of Hawaii. She was a reporter on the San Francisco Call Bulletin and the Honolulu Advertiser before coming East, i n 1946 when she joined Newsweek as research er-writer, specializing in the religion and education depart ments of the magazine. She has written publicity for the British Travel Association, and a news column for American Girl, monthly magazine of the Girl Scouts. Feature stories she lias writ ten for the Chappaqua Sun edition of PATENT'TR.ADER have been concentrated i n the Ohappaqua-Millwood area. A. recent story on the . '\home .menagerie\ of Mrs. M.. Ben nett Towbls of Shinglehouse Road has been entered in the New York Press Association BETSY BROWN contest for best feature story of the year. Since moving to Millwood four years ago she has written publicity for the local Fresh Air Fund as well as numerous feature stories for PATENT' TRADER. As editorial assist ant i n •Chappaqua, she covers school board meetings and ;' shares the work of the editor •ih .Tewrite and reporting. ' •\ --.Mrs. Brown's husband, for merly foreign affairs writer ,«, and corresponderit in Ger*' ' many for Newsweek, is an'ed- itor of the New York Times Magazine She has two child ren: Jeffrey, 5, and Lucy, 4. Highway Cost CuiH CHAPPAQUA—New Castle Town Board adopted the 1957 town bud get at a special meeting Saturday morning at which it made reduc tions which will cut the tax rate for the entire town to $2,123 per thousand of assessed valuation from the $2,516 which had been anticipated. (The tax for the \entire town\ is the only tax in the New Castle budget which is levied against property hi the New Castle por tion of the Village of Mt. Kisco.) Total tax rate for property own ers in the part of New Castle out side the Village of Mt. Kisco is thereby set at- $9,678. I t had pre viously been figured at $10,071. The rate was $6,441 per thousand in 1956 and $9,851 in 1955. The item of $11,827 for a new spreader body truck in the high way department budget for the entire town was removed, and n $2,000 item substituted, to cover spreaders which can be attached to present equipment to do the same job. The item of snow re moval was reduced from $14,000 to $12,000. The latter figure was allocated to-snow removal in the 1956 burget, and $17,133.33 was spent. j. The amount of surplus, applied to the entire town budget was raised from $20,000 to $25,000, as was indicated HIJJI ^rpbabljit^slt the November -27', public nearins' on the budget. Total budget for thejenthe .town, as adopted, is $216,570., Estimated ' revenues of $100,623.38'and'deduc tion of the $25,000 surplus leave $90,946.62 to be raised by taxes. PRIZE WINNER: Joan Hitch cock, daughter of Mr. and -Mrs. Kimball R.. Hitchcock of Douglas Road, won a check as first prize in the 'poster contest sponsored by the Chappaqua Dads in be half of their Christmas parly Dec ember 15. Shown above with Joan, left to right, are Ralph Stowell, Dads president, and John Colgr.cn, .chairman of the Christmas party. Prize-winning poster can be seen in .the Post Office. —Staff photo by Dick Fowler Christmas Party Sponsored By Chappaqua Dads, C Of C CHAPPAQUA — Plans for the big Christmas Party .for all Chap paqua kids \from 'the sixth grade down,;' to be held Saturday after noon, December 15, .in the Horace Greeley High- Schqol auditorium, are alniost complete, it was announced jointly by the Chap paqua Dads and Chappaqua Chamber of Commerce, co-spon sors of the party. John Colgren; chairman .of the; Dads, said special entertainment has been arranged for the young sters which will appeal to the small fry of all ages. And, of course, Santa Claus will be on hand throughout the after noon and ,will present gifts to the children. The entire program will be de scribed next week. Mr.Colgren and Joseph Sylvester, chairman -for the Chamber of Commerce,, hope that Chappaqua parents will make plans now to see that their chil-- dren will be on hand for the first of, what both organizations believe will become another fine Chap paqua tradition. First prize in the poster con-- test sponsored by the Dads,. In ' \ behalf of the big Christmas party was awarded to Joan Hitchcock. Mr. Colgren, who presented the award to Joan, announced that the first prize winner has also captured an honorable mention for another poster she submitted. - Honorable mention was also given for posters prepared by Luclnda Wells and Peggy. Fowlie. Other fine posters, which can be seen in various Chappaqua stores, were submitted by Susan Heck, Carolyn Searing, Beth^ Angler, Debbie - Nash, \Andrea\ Shlick and Sandy Stowell. ' '
