Hundreds Mourn Death of Budd Lake Teen

Family and community members pay final respects to Nicholas Michael Cianciotto III, who was ice fishing when he and his friend fell into the frigid waters of Budd Lake last week.

Hundreds mourned Saturday the death of one of the two Mount Olive teens who drowned last week while ice fishing in Budd Lake. As a thick fog filled the air outside, family, friends and members of the community attended the funeral of Nicholas Michael Cianciotto III at St. Jude Roman Catholic Parish in Mount Olive. Cianciotto and his friend Clyde Schimanski III were ice fishing Monday night when they fell through the icy waters. Both teens were 15 years old. Cianciotto, a sophomore at Mount Olive High School who lived in Budd Lake for nine years, enjoyed the outdoors, dirt bike riding, snowboarding and fishing, according to his obituary. Cianciotto was buried Saturday at Christ the King Cemetery in Franklin Lakes. Visitation hours for …

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Wake Set For Second Teen Lost in Budd Lake

Visitation for Clyde Schimanski III will be Sunday at Davis & Hepplewhite Funeral Home.

One day after the funeral of Nicholas Michael Cianciotto, III, one of two teenagers who died after falling into Budd Lake Monday night, friends and family will say goodbye to the second, his friend, Clyde F Schimanski III. According to a release from the Davis & Hepplewhite Funeral Home located at 96 Main St., Succasunna, Schimanski’s family will be received visitors on Sunday from 1-4 p.m. The biography of Schimanski provided by Davis & Hepplewhite said the 15-year-old was born in Denville and was a life long resident of Budd Lake. Schimanski was a freshman at Mt. Olive High School and loved to spend his free time riding his dirt bike, and being outdoors, the site said. Schimanski is survived by his parents Clyde F Schimanski Jr., and …

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Funeral Arrangements Set For Teen Lost in Budd Lake

Nick Cianciotto's wake held at St. Jude R.C. Parish in Budd Lake Friday, funeral mass on Saturday.

What a few days ago was unthinkable, friends and family are now faced with the reality of saying goodbye to Nicholas Michael Cianciotto, III, 15, of Mt. Olive, one of two teenagers who died after falling into Budd Lake Monday night.  According to the release from the Leber Funeral Home in Chester, the family received visitors Friday at St. Jude Parish in Budd Lake. A funeral mass for Cianciotto is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Jude. Interment is scheduled to take place at Christ the King Cemetery in Franklin Lakes. A post on the Mt. Olive Bus Drivers public facebook page said that overflow parking will be available at Turkey Brook Park from 5 p.m. on and that bus drivers are donating their time to shuttle people back and forth. …

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Memorial Sunday For Couple Killed in Storm

Service will be held at Blue Crest Riding Center in Long Valley.

A memorial service for Richard and Elizabeth Everett, the couple killed by a falling tree during Tropical Storm Sandy will be held at Blue Crest Riding Center in Long Valley, according to the obituary from the Tuttle Funeral home. The Everetts were residents of Randolph for 12 years and previously lives in West Chester, Pa. Richard was a chemist at Opthotech in Princeton and Elizabeth was a bio tech consultant for Novartis in East Hanover. They were both very active throughout the community. Richard and Elizabeth Ann are survived by their four children, Zoe, Talia, Theodore and Pierce. Survivors include Richard's parents, Richard Gielow and Elizabeth Ann Everett; his step-mother, Barbara Gielow; his brother, Jay, and his step-brother, Jeff…

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Mt. Olive Native Remembered as Family Man and Hero

Services for Chris Connors, the Belvidere man killed in a car accident on Thursday, to be at the Cochran Funeral home Monday.

Chris Connors was the "tough guy." The guy with the jean jacket with the Iron Maiden and Metallica patches sewn on. Hanging out with his best friend Brian Hager, Connors exuded the self confidence of a guy who didn't care what anybody thought. But beneath that tough exterior was the proverbial heart of gold. And on Thursday, a car accident in the town he was raised in claimed his life. "I've known him since the fourth grade," sister-in-law Melissa Altadonna Kramer said. "He was a tough, wild, free-spirited guy with a true genuine heart who would never intentionally hurt anyone." When Connors married Kramer's sister, Michelle, she told him he had to be nice to her to make up for all the teasing at Sandshore School, middle school and high …

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Jersey Newspaper Pioneer Dead At 99

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'N.J.'s Historian' Wrote Over 50 Books About State

John T. Cunningham died last week at age 96; visiting hours scheduled for Monday in Madison.

John T. Cunningham, a popular New Jersey historian who wrote more than 50 books about the state's past, some of which were used in grade-school classrooms and turned into award-winning documentaries, died Thursday. He was 96. Visiting hours are scheduled for Monday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at Burroughs, Kohr & Dangler Funeral Home, 106 Main Street, Madison. A memorial service for Cunningham is scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. at Morristown United Methodist Church, 50 S. Park Place, Morristown. Cunningham was raised in Mendham and graduated from Morristown High School in 1932. A 1938 graduate of Drew University and a resident of Florham Park for 60 years, Cunningham was remembered by Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen as a man whose…

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Whitney Houston Laid to Rest in Westfield

Procession arrived at noon Sunday for burial ceremony at Fairview Cemetery. Nearly 100 fans shouted 'We love you, Whitney' as hearse turned into the cemetery.

The vigil at Fairview Cemetery began at first light Sunday morning. There were no mourners, just reporters and photographers mingling congenially as they staked out a good spot for their reports back to the network morning shows or a position for the perfect photo of the funeral procession bringing Whitney Houston to the cemetery for her burial. Police officers arrived before daylight, at 6 a.m., to secure every possible corner of the Fairview property, from the Cranford border along Union County College to the south and E. Broad Street to the north. At the western end of the cemetery, Gallows Hill Road was closed to prevent any neighborhood street from messing up any potential route in which the procession of hearses and limos that would …

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shirrone spivey

5:12 pm on Tuesday, November 27, 2012

ron   more ›

Liberty Eagle Sculptor Gone, But Art Lives On

Harry Robinson, creator of Bert the Liberty Eagle, died at age 87.

In Washington Township, where United States history is revered, it’s only fitting that a patriotic landmark be birthed from arbor that was here long before the residents. The Liberty Eagle, carved in 1999 from the dying Liberty Tree, stands for thousands of daily passersby to see at the intersection of Flocktown and Schooley’s Mountain Roads. Residents and travelers alike know about the Liberty Eagle, referred to as Bert, but not all are aware of the man who sculpted the landmark nearly 13 years ago. Harry Robinson of Bernardsville, a professional civil engineer and sculpting hobbyist, worked for six months to transform the centuries-old tree into a local landmark–just one of his many creations. Robinson created a handful of sculptures in …

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John Reed

10:21 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Thanks for sharing this interesting information about Mr. Robinson. Hopefully Bert and our Eagle will be a part of our Long Valley history for many years to come.   more ›

DeCroce: A GOPer Who Could Get Things Done

Officials recall Legislator who acted as model and teacher

One of the last acts Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce performed Monday during a marathon Legislative session was to marshal through the Assembly a bill he co-sponsored that boosted development opportunities and annoyed environmentalists. DeCroce, 75,  died Monday after the session that closed out the 214th Legislature. DeCroce,  from Parsippany, served in the Assembly since 1989 and  was named the his party’s leader there in 2003. His wife, Betty Lou DeCroce, is a deputy commissioner with the Department of Community Affairs. He was a former Morris County freeholder. DeCroce's death comes on the heels of the passing of another GOP assemblyman, Peter Biondi of Somerset County, who died Nov. 10, two days after he was re-elected to an …

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