Prosecutor: Discovery of Dead Bodies in Monmouth Beach Poses ‘No Cause for Alarm’

Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office authorities have alerted people in the Monmouth Beach area that the finding of two dead bodies in the Channel Club Marina poses “no cause for alarm,” a released statement from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said.

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Memorial Set for former Rumsonite Marty Stevens Kaufmann

Martha “Marty” Stevens Kaufmann
Photo/courtesy of Thompson Memorial Home

Former longtime Rumson resident Marty Stevens Kaufmann passed away peacefully on Saturday, March 18, at her Sunrise of Lincroft residence. She was 80.

Born and raised in the coal-mining town of Glen Lyon, PA, Marty moved to New York City after graduating from Newport High School. She worked there for a couple of years before marrying and relocating to the River Plaza section of Middletown and then to Rumson, where she continued to raise her family.

In retirement, Marty spent her winters in Stuart, FL and summers in Long Branch.

A member of the Rumson Newcomers’ Club, Marty was also an office manager at Biddle Sawyer Corp., Keyport, for more than 20 years,

In her spare time, she enjoyed gardening, long walks, traveling and boating with her beloved late husband, Don. “She was a loving wife, mother and grandmother and is already missed dearly,” her family said in her obituary from Thompson Memorial Home.

Marty was predeceased by her husband Daniel “Don” Kaufmann “Don” few months ago with whom she shared “35 happy years.”  She was also predeceased by her parents, Theodore and Martha Honabach, and her sister Marie Castelli, of Nanicoke, Pa.

Marty is survived by: her sons, Edward Stevens and his wife Robin, of Paoli, Pa., and their boys Bryce and Cassidy, James Stevens and his wife Noreen, of Atlantic Highlands, and their children Trevor and Samantha, Mark Stevens and his wife Donna, of Middletown, and their children Kelly, Amy and A.J.; and daughter Linda Stevens Olshan, of Long Branch, and her children Nicole and Robert.

The family will receive friends on Sunday, March 26, from 2 to 5 pm, at the Thompson Memorial Home, 310 Broad St., Red Bank.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Monday, March 27, at 10 a.m. at the Church of the Precious Blood, 72 Riverdale Ave., Monmouth Beach.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Martha to the Alzhiemers Association at www.alz.org.

— Edited obituary, courtesy of Thompson Memorial Home

Remembering Fair Haven Police Patrolman Robert J. Henne

Today marks two years since the untimely death of 23-year-old Fair Haven Police Patrolman Robert J. Henne.

Henne, also a Fair Haven fireman, was loved dearly by his community, colleagues, friends and family.

Take a look back and remember. Thank you for your service, Robert. Rest in peace … You are remembered.

Retro Knollwood Show Time

“Times have changed,” as the lyrics to Cole Porter’s Anything Goes go …

Yes they have. And they haven’t.

The shows are still going on, but they’re quite different types of productions. The students at Fair Haven’s Knollwood School have staged Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr.  The show went on in the beginning of the month.

And, way back in 1974, the school’s second ever musical was staged with the middle schoolers. You guessed it. It was Anything Goes.

Yes, times have changed, and mostly because these days they actually have junior versions of otherwise adult-like shows that aren’t really all that adult.

In fact, in those days, nothing was thought of doing a pretty darn adult musical that starred a, ahem, “lady of the evening” turned evangelist, a gangster and his maul, a stowaway, an heiress and a kooky English gentleman all aboard a ship and involved in madcap farce and love triangles.

Who knew? Well, the 1974 cast  of Knollwood’s version of Anything Goes certainly didn’t.

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Prosecutor: Area Man Faces Child Porn Charges

An area man is facing up to 15 years in prison on charges in connection with computer child pornography download and distribution, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced on Tuesday.

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A Look Back at Knollwood’s ‘Beauty and the Beast Jr.’

A “tale as old as time” came to Fair Haven’s Knollwood School’s stage when 40 young middle school students performed a production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr. a few weeks ago.

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Retro River Rats Bonding

A 1976 River Rats crew
Photo/courtesy Marc Edelman, Facebook

With the recent death and impending memorial of former longtime Fair Havenite and River Rats purser, Warner White, thoughts turn back to some good old days of being a kid rat, so to speak, and hanging out down by the river.

It’s a rite of passage in the Rumson-Fair Haven area that kid life be rife with river-oriented activities.

River Rats was the king of that sort of thing — especially in the summertime. The little riverfront nook at the foot of Battin Road in Fair Haven was that special place where kids and boating-bonded buddies learned how to sail and navigate riverfront life with the sand between their toes and perpetual smiles on their faces. It was a unique little sailors’ club. Still is.

River Rats has been a Fair Haven institution since 1955.

It all started like this: “In October 1955 shortly after he moved from New York, Captain Walter Isbrandtsen wrote to a friend: ‘I have purchased a house in a small community on the New Jersey coast where I am gradually becoming active … in an organization known as Dads Incorporated … whose activities include a newly established program designed to take full advantage of a neighboring river …'”

Captain Isbrandtsen organized the family-oriented sailing group and became the first Skipper of River Rats, as it is written in the River Rats’ biographical history.

So, the Retro Pic(s) of the Day takes us back to the U.S.A. bicentennial year of 1976 and a bunch of young River Rats.

This crew is comprised mostly of RFH classmates who gathered by the boat launch at the end of Battin Road in Fair Haven to offer a glimpse of their day as a reminder of what growing up by the river is all about.

Sail on! RIP, Warner White …

— Elaine Van Develde

Focus: Black & White Spring River Tones

Spring has sprung — sort of.

Well, the sun was shining brightly on the first day of spring, anyway. And while last week’s lingering patches of snow remained in spots throughout the Rumson-Fair Haven area, buds were popping up from underneath them.

The scene on the banks of the Navesink River at the foot of Battin Road in Fair Haven was still, mild and calming — signals of springing into a warmer sunset took hold.

It was a stark, black-and-white kind of scenario. Take a look. (Oh, and don’t forget to click to enlarge …)

Happy spring; and good night.

— Elaine Van Develde

Rumson Memorial Set for Former River Rats Purser, Warner White

Former longtime Fair Haven resident and purser of the River Rats, Elijah Warner White, died on March 14 at Riverview Medical Center. He was 91 and living in Red Bank prior to his death.

A memorial service for White is slated for March 25 at 2 p.m. at The First Presbyterian Church of Rumson, 4 East River Rd., Rumson.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1925 to the former Florence Gage and Percy Warner White, he earned degrees from Oberlin College and the University of Michigan. He relocated to New Jersey to work as an electronics engineer at Bell Labs, Holmdel.

Warner was a skilled photographer and a member of the Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury.

He served with the US Army 94th Infantry in combat 1944-45.

He was an elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Rumson, long-time resident of Fair Haven, and past purser of the River Rats Sailing Club.

Warner was predeceased by his son Christopher in 1997.

He is survived by: his wife of 65 years, the former Janet Brown; his son Philip; daughter Margaret (Peggy) Milliken; grandchildren Kathryn LeTrent and Robin Milliken; and great-granddaughter Margaret LeTrent.

 

The Thompson Memorial Home, 310 Broad St, Red Bank, is entrusted with the arrangements.

— Edited obituary, courtesy of Thompson Memorial Home.

Prosecutor: Operation Justice Served Links 45 Area People to Drug Ring

A five-month undercover investigation involving the collaborative efforts of federal, state, county and local authorities dubbed Operation Justice Served has resulted in a Monmouth County grand jury returning on Thursday a 100-count indictment linking 45 area people to a Freehold-based drug distribution ring involving heroin, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni announced.

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Retro RFH Gym Class

RFH gym teachers of the 1970s Photo/RFH yearbook
RFH gym teachers of the 1970s
Photo/RFH yearbook

With the sting of the cold and longing for that breath of warm fresh air, thoughts turn to days spent in the young teen sweat-infused gym at RFH. Oh, the ritual of that mandatory indoor exercise.

Ahhh, memories. More like a little PTSD remembrance of the torture the class was for some — especially when stuck inside. When you’re not an athlete and, for that matter, can barely volley a ball (and I mean barely), gym class day was the day of trying to get some sort of note of excuse from your mom to get you out of the embarrassment. Forgery became a talent. Though some moms could feel the uncoordinated kids’ pain and easily relented with prompt penning.

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