Archive - Mar 16, 2011 - News Article
WOONSOCKET â He never smoked or drank. No one can recall that he ever raised his voice in anger. And the khakis and loafers he was fond of wearing were as low-key as his personality.
In many ways the Pulitzer Prize was a crown that never quite fit Edwin OâConnor, author of âThe Last Hurrah,â and the cityâs most famous Irish-American native son.
And, sadly, perhaps its most forgotten.
âAside from the catch-phrase âlast hurrah,â which has become part of the English language, he really has been forgotten,â says Robert Rose, an independent TV producer from Lincoln.
MILLVILLE â This week would have been just around the time that John F. Dean Sr. would dye his trademark white beard green in honor of St. Patrickâs Day. It was a springtime tradition that would often turn the heads of passing motorists while Dean, looking like an over-sized leprechaun, was out with his highway crews filling potholes.
Today, rather, it was a somber mood in Millville, as friends and family mourned the passing of 78-year-old Dean, a lifelong resident of Millville and longtime town highway surveyor, who died Tuesday at Landmark Medical Center after a brief illness.
WOONSOCKET â A Family Court judge yesterday âcertifiedâ a 17-year-old boy accused in a stabbing last April that left an elderly man paralyzed â a status that falls a step short of waiving him into adult courts.
But Amy Kempe, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, said the ruling also places the boy in jeopardy of serving an adult-length prison sentence if the courts determine he was responsible for the stabbing.
âItâs kind of a bifurcated approach,â said Kempe. âHeâll be tried in Family Court but heâll be subject to adult sentencing.â
