Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 3

Today's Chuckle After a week and a half of steady rain, a man thought he would kid his librarian by asking for a book on how to build an ark. "I'm sorry," she replied, "that book is out. A man named Noah has it." THE SECOND FRONT PAGE 5 saw i iff i Page 3, Section A Monday, March 13, 1978 Scrappy youth battles leukemia: 'He's never been on a loser' B1D D1Y Bus driver's lot is rolten when oafs are mouthing off A DETROIT BUS DRIVER brought his 40-foot behemoth to a sudden halt. A hot-headed oaf in an expensive camper was blocking his turn. The bus driver honked.

The oaf waited, then pulled up to the driver's window. "If I ever see you again I'll blow you away," he screamed at the driver as two wolf- like dogs romped in his back seat. "You'll be on ice." With that, he knocked the driver's rear-view mirror off its hinges and peeled away. The public servant was unnerved. "I can't take this bus driver thing anymore," he muttered as he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.

"I've just had enough." By JIM CRUTCHFIELD Free Press Staff Writer Little Billy Gee could run a 10.2-second 100-yard dash and his slashing speed at left wing helped his high school hockey team to the state quarter-finals in 1 975. He is an eight-handicap golfer who was on the school's state championship golf team. At 12, he led his baseball team to fourth place in the Little League World Series, pitching a one-hitter and smashing a last-inning home run in a key 1-0 victory. "He's never been on a loser, and we're not going to be this time, either," says his mother, Margaret Gee. THIS TIME, Billy, now 17, is trying to beat leukemia, the deadly cancer of the blood-forming tissue.

He and his family are waiting at their Birmingham home for a call from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, a Seattle medical center named for a former Detroit Tigers pitcher and Cincinnati Reds manager who died at 45 of cancer. the words of his Detroit Country Day School dean, John Gilbert. Calmly, almost clinically, Billy describes the aches and pains of his bones and how he sometimes throws up because of chemotherapy treatments. Every other Monday, he says, he goes to his doctor for a physical and an injection of the drug Oncovin. Then the doctor prescribes three drugs that Billy takes orally every six hours for the next five days, adding up to about 20 pills a day.

BUT BILLY says he does not worry about his illness. "Probably because I feel good," he says. "If I didn't feel good, I'd probably worry. As long as I feel good, I don't think about it." Neither, he says, is he fearful about the operation that he wants. "Not right now.

I probably will be when I find out more about it," he says. Please turn to rage SA The family hopes the call will tell them if and when Billy can go to Seattle for a bone marrow transplant operation. The expensive operation, if. which older brother Steven's bone marrow would be transplanted to him, might bring an end to the painful chemotherapy treatments he undergoes every other week. BILLY, the youngest of Margaret and Robert Gee's three children, has seen his family rally around him.

Steven came home for the operation from the West African nation of Sierra Leone, where he is serving in the Peace Corps. His grandmother, Lillian Gee, came up in mid-February from her home in Holiday, Fla. HER VISIST was marred further, however, by another family tragedy. Mrs. Gee's husband, Billy's grandfather, died last week while she was away.

Billy, a 5-foot-4'2 llth-grader who has dropped from 140 to 130 pounds, has meanwhile faced the illness "almost cheerfully," in Bad news is no news ON THE WALL outside the state Mental Health Director's Office in Lansing, there hangs a bulletin board. Its title is "Mental Health in the News." The board is nearly blank, despite the fact that the troubled department has been splashed across front pages all over the state in the past three weeks as never before. The only item says: "Think happy!" Free Press Photo bv CRAIG PORTER The aches and pains of leukemia are with Billy Gee every day, but he doesn't spend his time worrying. "As long as I feel good," he says, "I don't think about It." uspect shot after takin, Seleclive memory department THE 64-PAGE PROGRAM for the Michigan GOP's "Focus for Victory" fund-raising dinner last week Included pictures of every Republican president save one Richard Nixon. The party's executive director, Jerry D.

Roe, said Nixon "must have been overlooked was no malice aforethought." Prediction: a rain of blows CITY COUNCILMAN JACK KELLEY, all 265 pounds of him, plans to fight tiny weatherman Sonny Eliot, who weighs in at 169. But it's all in fun Sonny hopes. The match will take place before Friday's pro boxing card at Olympia. It won't be the first time in his 51-year career as an Irishman that Kelley has tried to go the distance on St. Patrick's Day in a Grand River Avenue establishment.

Back in 1974, a combination of Irish Mist and an Irish fist sent Kelley to a hospital for stitches over his left eye. That happened after the St. Paddy's parade at a bar on Grand River near Greenfield. officer's vWmktSh ill gun 4 'r t) 4 -1 By JACK KRESNAK AND TED CAREY Free Press Staff Writers A -I A 28-year-old Detroit man arrested Saturday night for driving under the influence of alcohol was shot and killed by officers at the Royal Oak police station in a struggle that broke out after he failed a Breathalyzer test. Police said Johnny Stanton, of 15445 Freeland, tried to" disarm one officer and became locked in a rolling, kicking "death struggle" in which the two men were shot by the officer's gun.

A second officer ended the fight by killing Stanton with three more shots, police said. Injured were Officer Ray Taylor, the Breathalyzer operator whose gun Stanton grabbed, and Officer William Snapp, who 4 fired the final shots. Taylor was shot once in the upper leg and was reported in good condition at Beaumont Hospital. Snapp had a black eye from being hit by a ricocheting bullet fragment. mvL 1 jT" Free press Photos bv RICHARD LEE Austin to close in June Let sleeping trainers lie Prize dogs and their owners vied together and rested together Sunday at the 60th annual All Breed Benched Dog Show at Cobo Hall.

Rules require both cannines and humans to stay at their posts during the entire 13-hour competition. Above, Marsha Pfall of Rochester, N.Y., naps with her Great Dane, Castile's Funny Girl. At right, Lynne Reinke of McHenry, snoozes with Lazy K's Sabrina. The winner was a Chow-Chow named Champion Mi-Tu-S Han Su Shang. Arabs fearful Winter no time for to wing after arrest in Israel According to Royal Oak Deputy Chief Clayton Besan-son, officers Snapp and Steven Gold saw Stanton's car weave and nearly strike two other cars as he was driving south on Woodward at about midnight.

Stanton was arrested near Woodward and Ten Mile, taken to the station and escorted by Snapp to the booking room for a breath test. Besanson said Stanton scored .18 and .17 on two straight Breathalyzer tests, well above the legal intoxication limit of .10 percent. Stanton was "very docile, posed no trouble at all" both during and immediately after the tests, Besanson said. After the tests, police said, Stanton asked the two officers to explain how the Breathalyzer worked. As Taylor was explaining, Stanton, who was standing- between the two policemen, suddenly grabbed Taylor's .357 Magnum from its holster.

TAYLOR ALSO grabbed the gun, and the two wrestled to the floor, rolling and fighting from the booking room into a hallway. A first wild shot ricocheted off a wall and hit Snapp near one eye, apparently impairing his vision. Snapp followed them, crouching behind with gun drawn but holding his fire because Please turn to Page 5A About milk spills and Sunday drinking DON'T MILK TANK trucks ever have accidents? Or is it just that we don't hear about them? State Rep. Casimir Ogonowski is plugging hard for a bill that would permit the sale of liquor on Sundays beginning at 10 a.m. He says it would be a boost for the tourist industry and would generate more service-oriented employment.

of the Topper to Nate and Ella Goldtsick, who will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on St. Patrick's Day in Miami Beach Sue of Saks told a friend that a single manufacturer supplies most of the mannikins used in stores. Asked why that was so, she replied: "The field is so tough that not mannikin get into it" Gordon Neumann of Mount Clemens notes: "In even the most highly respected English language dictionary, at least five of the words are improperly spelled and incorrectly defined. You and I know them, but how many of your readers and contributors do? P.S. They appear in this note." Pretty tricky, George, but I'll bet a bagel you don't baffle many for long.

Edward McNamara of Livonia and his wife, Lucille, have no doubt where they will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day. For the eighth year in a row they'll be hosting a community dinner dance at Vladimir's on Grand River at 7 p.m. Everything's up to date in Los Angeles City. Leonard Barnes spotted this timely ad in Los Angeles magazine: COHABITATION CONTRACTS.

Living together agreements written in light of recent Lee Marvin decision regarding community property obligations. S.B. Hamilton, Attorney at Law. "NO REASON IT CAN'T work here," Meredith Shore and Marlcne Webber told themselves when they heard about Western Onion, a greeting service flourishing on the West Coast. So Meredith, who taught elementary art, and Marlene, who still teaches second grade in Monroe while Meredith minds the store, put together "Surprise! Surprise!" a delivery service for upbeat greetings via phone or in person.

Headquartered in Ann Arbor (668-7672), the new entrepreneurs are rounding up a stable of singers, with some help from the Sweet Adelines, distaff version of the barbershop- pers, and are making The Archdiocese of Detroit said Sunday an eleventh hour attempt by a parents group to continue the operations of Austin Catholic Prep School has failed and that the school will close in June. The 26-year-old boys school, located at 18300 E. Warren in Detroit, is owned and operated by the Augusti-nians, an order of Catholic priests. According to the Detroit archdiocese, the Augustinian Provincial Council in Chicago decided over the weekend that if the school were to continue to operate, the property would have to be purchased at the equivalent of its present market value. THE ARCHDIOCESE said the property value is estimated to be "well over $2 million," a figure the parents group, or archdiocese, couldn't possibly meet.

Before news of the latest purchase conditions, the par-Please turn to Page 6A By POLK LAFFOON Free Press Staff Writer EAST LANSING He appeared to be 22 and he said he was a mechanical engineering major, but he wouldn't give his name. His hair and beard were bushy, his eyes watchful. Like most English-speaking Arabs, he spoke in soft, caramel tones, and like all Arab students at Michigan State University these days, he said he is frightened. "Right now they're scaring every single student in the U.S. from seeing their families," said this native of Israel's embattled West Bank.

"I'd think four times twice under the best of circumstances about going back, even though it is my land." THE CAUSE of his apprehension was the Dec. 21 arrest of fellow student Sami Esmail at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport. Esmail, called to Israel two days before by an urgent message from his older brother, Basim, was on his way to visit his dying father in Ramal-lah. No sooner had he stepped off TWA Flight 880, however, than he was thrown into solitary confinement at Petakh-Tikva police station and forced to undergo rigorous some say torturous interrogation by Israeli authorities. Esmail is still in custody and awaiting a trial Tuesday on charges of membership in an unlawful organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and of contacts with foreign agents.

Israel alleges that Esmail studied terrorist tactics in Libya during August 1976. Please turn to Tage 6A Mariners'' Church honors sailors lost on Great Lakes By BILLY BOWLES Free Press Staff Writer It has been a good winter for hardware stores selling snow blowers and rock salt. But the towing business hasn't had the boom that one would expect. "All the snow hurt the towing business considerably, due to the fact that so many streets and alleys you couldn't get into and due to the time element in getting from one point to another," said tow truck dispatcher Tom Bond. Bond has been dispatching tow trucks for the Ashton-Damron Towing Co.

in Detroit for 25 years. He said that this has been the kind of year a towing firm doesn't want: lots of snow very early in the season and continued cold weather to keep it on the ground. A TOTAL of 60.4 inches of snow has fallen in Detroit so far this winter, compared with 43.9 inches for all of last winter. Temperatures dropped below normal in December and stayed there. In February, the mean temperature was 16.3 degrees, which is 10.3 degrees colder than normal and 8.9 degrees colder than last February.

"A good cold day is a much better day for us than all this snow," said Bond. would venture to say that last year we did more business than we did this year, due to the fact we could get through to it. "Definitely you can't do business when you can't get to it. The whole Midwest everybody you talk to has the same problem. The snow has Please turn to Page 4A plans to branch out in Detroit.

They're emphatic about turning down any message that isn't happy. No porn, no "I'll be glad when you're dead" type of creepery. They set their Valentine Day greetings to music from "Can Can," whipped up an anniversary salute to "Ma, He's Making Eyes at Me" and a By POLK LAFFOON Free Press Staff Writer hear us when we cry to thee For those in peril on the sea. The plangent strains of the Naval Hymn lifted to the rafters. Red carnations, blue seafaring uniforms and a model of Oliver Perry's warship in the center of the altar garlanded Detroit's venerable Mariners' Church.

The occasion was Sunday morning's Memorial Service and Blessing of the Fleet, an annual ceremony that rivals any St. Patrick's Day parade for panoply and surpasses it in dignity. OSTENSIBLY HELD to commemorate all mariners who have lost their lives on the Great Lakes, and particularly those who died during the previous year, the service is really one man's way of recognizing the importance of the Great Lakes to an entire region: "When I came here in 1963," explained Mari ners' rector Richard Ingalls. "the church was not doing anything like this. I had worked in the Army's Port and Service Command; I was familiar with the importance of waterways around the world and the valiancy of the men who serve on them.

I thought we should try to recognize the value of the Great Lakes." Fourteen years down the road, Ingalls' vision is well served. Sunday's service included a bagpipe lament; a somber presentation of four wreaths in honor of Great Lakes' men who have lost their lives "by storm by reef by fire and by colllr sion;" a colorful presentation of ships' flags from fleets in the area, and a doleful sounding of taps. "The Lord is my pilot, I shall not drift," intoned Ingalls in a seaman's version of the 23d Psalm. "He lighteth me across the dark waters," sponded the congregation. "He steereth me in the deep channels." "He keepeth my log." Please turn to Page 18A job promotion pat on the back to the tune of "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad." A pitch for a date is made to the strains of "Hello, Dolly!" All for a tariff of $20 in person and $10.95 by phone.

One young emissary delivered congratulations on the arrival of a new baby, She nearly sang herself hoarse as she was pressed into photographing the child with each of the parents, and then posing herself as she held the baby. TODAY'S WORST JOKE: John Madill takes us way back with the. one about the Greek statesman who was ambling down the street one morning when an ox cart ripped his robe. Waving a piece of the torn cloth at the driver, he shouted: "Euripides, Eumenides!" Free Press Pholo bv LONA O'CONNOR Capt. William A.

Hoey, president of the International Shipmasters Association Lodge No. 7, rings the bell for sailors lost at sea..