Beloved Briarcliff Woods Pediatrician Dead at 80

Dr. Gerson Aronovitz, who died Monday, was particularly good with new mothers.

Dr. Gerson Aronovitz, a beloved former pediatrician from Briarcliff Woods with a career that lasted almost 50 years, died Monday from complications related to Parkinson's disease. He was 80. Called "Dr. A" by young patients, he was particularly good at advising young mothers, according to an obituary in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. From the story: When he retired in 2009, saying goodbye to his young patients was not easy, Adelman said. Many of the parents of current patients had once been children in that very office. “I would have taken my baby to him in a heartbeat,” said Pamela Councill, who was a former patient, along with her four older brothers. “I had my baby after he retired, and I called his daughter to ask who else is out …

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Lakeside High Grad, Award-Winning Journalist Dead at 33

Maya Jackson Randall was hired by The Wall Street Journal at 25 to cover the energy industry.

Maya Jackson Randall, a Lakeside High School graduate and a national award-winning journalist, died last week. She was 33. After graduating from Howard University in Washington, she worked for several publications before The Wall Street Journal hired her at just 25 to cover the energy industry, according to Randall's obituary the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. From the story: During her short career, Randall covered the nation’s financial crisis. She traveled with former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to London, Beijing and Abu Dhabi, and wrote a series of articles that forced the U.S. Treasury to disclose how funds for the Troubled Asset Relief Program were being spent. “She had this natural poise and calmness to her,” [said Gary …

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Tom Doolittle

2:19 pm on Monday, March 4, 2013

Glad you picked this up for us Jonathan. For perspective, Maya graduated very close to the year Lakeside merged with Henderson High School (1996).   more ›

Funeral For Congressman John Lewis' Wife Monday

The funeral for Lillian Lewis, the wife of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, will be held at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

The funeral for Lillian Lewis, the wife of U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 7, at Ebenezer Baptist Church at 407 Auburn Ave., Atlanta. Mrs. Lewis, 73, died Monday at Emory University Hospital. She and Rep. Lewis, whose 5th District includes Decatur and most of the city of Atlanta, had been married 44 years. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said, Flowers may be sent to Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home, 1003 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. SW, Atlanta, until Sunday. After that day, flowers should be sent to Ebenezer Baptist Church. In lieu of flowers, donations in Lillian Lewis’ name can be sent to the American Kidney Fund Headquarters, 11921 Rockville Pike, Suite 300, Rockville, MD 20852. Please note in your …

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Lillian Lewis, Wife of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Dies Monday

Lillian and John Lewis had been married since 1968.

The office of U.S. Rep. John Lewis has confirmed that his wife, Lillian, died Monday morning in Atlanta. Details on her death were not available late Monday. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lillian Lewis grew up in Los Angeles and developed a lifelong interest in Africa. She taught in Nigeria in 1960 in a student program and later returned to Africa in the Peace Corps. The newspaper said, It was after taking a job as a librarian at Atlanta University (the predecessor, with Clark College, of today’s Clark Atlanta University) that she met her husband at a 1967 New Year’s Eve party at the home of television personality and civil rights activist Xernona Clayton. Clayton and another movement veteran, Dr. Bernard LaFayette, played…

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Former Briarcliff High PTA President, Integration Advocate Dies at 89

Mila Jean Steinhaus helped shepherd one of the calmest school integration processes in the South in the early '60s.

Mila Jean Steinhaus a well-known Atlanta educator, a former Briarcliff High School PTA president and an integration advocate in the early 1960s, died June 15 after suffering a stroke. She was 89. Steinhaus was involved in a group called OASIS (Organizations Assisting School in September) that worked with Northside High School integrating black students into white schools in 1961, according to her obituary in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. From the story: She took the education of her own children and their classmates seriously, volunteering as room mother at Fernbank and Kittredge schools and presiding as president of the PTA at Briarcliff High School, not to mention leading a Girl Scout troop. Mrs. Steinhaus was a past president of the…

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ID, Obit for North Druid Hills Car Accident Fatality

The Rev. Elward Ellis, 63, was killed earlier this month after he collided with an oncoming truck on North Druid Hills Road.

We briefly told you about a traffic fatality on North Druid Hills Road earlier this month though very little information was immediately available. A man driving a minivan down North Druid Hills Road east of Clairmont Road collided with an oncoming truck and was killed Saturday, May 12. That man, it turns out, was the Rev. Elward Willis, 63, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Ellis was pastor of Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Stone Mountain. From the story: At the time of his death, Rev. Ellis was pastor of Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Stone Mountain, a post that suited him well, said the Rev. Robert Henderson, of Tucker. “When the leaders at Crossroads asked me what I thought about them calling Elward, I said, when it …

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Paul Taylor, 1958-2012

The funeral will be at 7pm Thursday at Oak Grove United Methodist Church.

A. S. Turner & Sons Funeral Home in Decatur has provided this obituary for Paul Taylor, 53, the bicyclist killed Monday morning on North Decatur Road. Paul Holton Taylor died April 30, 2012, in Atlanta, Georgia, following a cycling accident.  He was born on May 20, 1958, in Passaic, New Jersey, the son of Virginia Avadine Holton Taylor and James Lon Taylor. Spending his childhood in Lincoln, Nebraska and his youth in Augusta, Georgia, he graduated from Butler High School in Augusta in 1975.  Mr. Taylor received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Augusta College in 1984 and Bachelor of Science degree in physician assistant from Georgia Health Sciences University (formerly Medical College of Georgia) in 1986.  In 1989, he earned his …

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Rabbi S. Robert Ichay, Spiritual Leader, Dead at 83

"I love people for what they are, not for what you expect them to be," he was quoted as saying.

Rabbi S. Robert Ichay, the Congregation Or VeShalom spiritual leader who prided himself on his service and relationships with others, died at home Monday. He had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was 83. Although a highly respected spiritual leader in the Atlanta community, it was not uncommon for him to reach out personally to parishioners simply to check in. He was a rarity among men, according to his friend Albert Maslia, who recruited Rabbi Ichay to Atlanta more than four decades ago. He was a humble man who saw himself as a servant above anything else, Maslia said. "His impact on the Jewish community is incalculable because he was a friend and confident to basically everyone that he met," said Rabbi Hayyim Kassorla of the …

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Congregation Or VeShalom Rabbi Dies

Funeral services will be held Wednesday and interment will follow at Greenwood Cemetery.