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Patty Gentsch of Altoona submitted this early 1950s photo of the Eagles Little League team which played at Altoona Centennial Field Junior Diamond, which opened in June 1950, near Mansion Park. Shown are (from left): first row -- unknown, unknown, Bill O'Connor, unknown, Ron Crider, Bob Defibaugh, unknown and John Treese; back row -- "Irish" O'Connor, unknown, Alvin "Buster" Gentsch (Patty's late husband), John Mumaugh, Bill Suckling and unknown.
Readers are encouraged to send or deliver old local photographs of general interest for use in Yesteryear. Information about people and places should be included. Photos must be 30 years old or older and should be sent to Yesteryear, Altoona Mirror, P.O. Box 2008, Altoona, PA 16603, or emailed to community@altoonamirror.com. For more information, call Brenda Carberry, community news coordinator, at 814-946-7459.
Local news on this date
April 4, 1951
Blair County Air Support Chief A.D. Rossbach reported that there were 48 licensed pilots in Blair County that would make up the new Air Support Civil Defense System whose job would be to fly medicine, supplies, personnel and the wounded in and out of designated emergency areas.
April 4. 1976
Daryl Reimer (Altoona Area High) was named Mr. Executive of Junior Achievement and Kathy Amato (Hollidaysburg Area High) was crowned Miss Junior Achievement in ceremonies at the Knights of Columbus Hall.
April 4, 2001
The 75-year-old Young Men's Shop, a fixture in downtown Altoona that moved to Regency Square in Allegheny Township 10 years ago was to close, owners Joel and Brian Cohen, son and grandson of founder Joe Cohen, announced.
April 4, 2016
About 30 landscape architects-in-training at Penn State conducted a survey of 400 Altoona residents for ideas for reinvigorating Heritage Plaza in the downtown and presented their ideas at the Heritage Discovery Center, Jane Sheffield executive director.
April 5, 1951
The Pennsylvania Railroad, Park M. Roeper superintendent of the Middle Division, which owned all the parking lots in downtown Altoona from 11th to 15th streets along 10th Avenue, leasing out five of them, said they were all to come under the control of the PRR for improvements with no price increases when the leases expired.
The Altoona Area Senior High School Parent Teacher Association was to hold a "1,000 Night" April 10 in which all the teachers would be honored as forgotten heroes and 1,000 sets of parents of students would be invited to tour the facilities.
April 5. 1976
Cadet Capt. Carol Prugar of Altoona was appointed an ROTC Executive Officer at Penn State Altoona, the first woman to ever hold that position and Cadet Major Michael Wertz of Altoona was named detachment commander.
Creator-Artist Michael Allison of the Aye Art Studio was constructing an Easter Showcase at the Logan Valley Mall that was to feature the biggest Easter Bunny and pictures would be taken for children ages 3 to 17 with the bunny display.
April 5, 2001
Blair County Sheriff Larry Field attended a security conference held by the Pennsylvania Sheriff's Association to get ideas on protecting the Blair County Courthouse with which he said he was "very, truly concerned."
The Altoona Police Department reported that 204 dog bites were reported to them last year, Bon Secours Holy Family Hospital treated 72 while nationwide the number had increased to 333,667 and one death, according to the Center for Disease Control.
April 5, 2016
S&A Homes in State College, in front of a graffiti and broken glass covered ground in front of Highland Hall in Hollidaysburg, announced plans to rehabilitate it into 53 apartment units for the low income elderly while maintaining the building as historically accurate.
Triangle building at 12th Ave. and 16th St. was opened as the Sun & Moon Restaurant with eight apartments available on the upper two stories. A native of New Zealand named Dinre Redmond was the chef and the establishment was to be open seven days a week.
National, world news on this date
April 4:
In 1949, 12 nations, including the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C., establishing NATO.
In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot and killed while standing on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King's death triggered a wave of unrest in cities across the United States that killed 43 people and injured more than 3,000.
In 1991, Republican Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six other people, including two children, were killed when a helicopter collided with Heinz's plane over a schoolyard in Merion, Pennsylvania.
April 5:
In 1986, two American servicemen and a Turkish woman were killed in the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque, an incident that prompted a U.S. air raid on Libya nine days later.
In 1991, former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, his daughter Marian and 21 other people were killed in a commuter plane crash near Brunswick, Georgia.
In 1994, Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain died by suicide in his Seattle, Washington, home at age 27.
In 2010, a massive coal dust explosion ripped through underground corridors of the Upper Big Branch mine near Charleston, West Virginia, killing 29 workers in the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in 40 years.
Local news compiled by Tim Doyle. National, world news from The Associated Press.