The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 26

2-C Sentinel Star. Wednesday December 23. 1981 Mom tried to stop son who died in fire Steel beam falls at Epcot, kills worker His mother ran out of the house and tried to stop him, deputies said. It was too late. Deputies said Cone lighted a match, and the van exploded into flames.

"Apparently he poured gasoline on the mattress in the back of the van," said Lt. Harry Belbeck of. the Orange County Fire Department. A neighbor, who was watching a television game show, rushed outside when she heard the explosion. 'The flames were 15 to 30 feet high," said the woman, who did not want to be identified.

Firefighters said Cone was dead when they arrived. "His mother said that ever since the war he has had mental problems, and was under psychiatric care," Porter said. The neighbors who gathered around the charred van wondered about what had happened. "And just three days before Christmas," one man By LAURA SANTOS-BERRY SanSMlSUr Ever since he returned from Vietnam, Richard Melvin Cone just hadn't seemed the same, his mother said. She and Cone lived quietly at 3923 Alpert Drive in Citrus Cove, a new middle-class subdivision in north Orange County.

Cone, 38, who was undergoing psychiatric care, had been selling plants and pecans in his garage to make money, a neighbor said. "ft was a quiet family friendly, but they kept to themselves," another neighbor said. Around 7 p.m. Monday, Cone told his mother he "was going to burn himself up," said Detective Ray Porter of the Orange County Sheriffs Department. A few minutes later Cone's mother looked out the window of her concrete-block home, gaily decorated for Christmas.

She saw her son sitting in the back of his Ford van, swallowing the rat poison he had bought earlier that day, deputies said. ft" j- i -s I I4 1 Richard Walls Senttiwl Star An Orange County firefighter climbs out of van where Cone died. Fran Sentinal star SwvtaM A 55-year-old steelworker at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center construction site died Tuesday morning after a 6-foot steel beam fell about 40 feet from a crane and landed on his head. Earl W. Meeker of Clermont, an employee of the Michigan Boiler was working on a construction site near the Germany pavilion at the center.

He apparently had rigged two steel beams together, but the rigging came undone, and the bottom beam tell, Sheriff's Capt. John Guemple said. The beam, which weighed about 50 pounds, struck Meeker on the back of the head, Guemple said. Meeker died about noon at Orange Vista Hospital, a Disney World spokesman said. Guemple said the death appeared to be strictly accidental.

Businesses close Christmas Eve Central Floridians should wind up their shopping and banking by Thursday afternoon since most businesses will close for Christmas early on Christmas Eve. All area malls will close at 5:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve and will remain closed until Saturday. Banks and savings and loan offices will close early Thursday and will not. open again until Monday morning.

Florida Power Corp. and Southern Bell will be closed for business Thursday and Friday, but the Orlando Utilities Commission will remain open until noon Thursday, All state and local government employees will have a long holiday weekend starting Thursday. Business will resume on Monday. There will be no garbage collection Christmas Day in Orlando and unincorporated areas of Orange County. However, refuse pickup will resume on the next scheduled collection date.

Deputy fired fatal shot: report 'Garvin Whittmore, a southwest Orange County man who police said shot into his neighbor's home, was killed by a bullet from the gun of a deputy returning the fire, a medical examiner's report showed Tuesday. The 66-year-old man was killed by a bullet that drxzrwaks sale Selected 4-piece place settings $74.50 to $39.90 current obsolete patterns matched. Want-lists filled. You'll be surprised at what we can find for you how reasonable our prices are. PRIVATE MAIL BOX RENTALS FREE CALL IN MAIL CHECK 24 HR.

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LUKE'S EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL ffrW'l I It Vi'l' 30N. Magnolia ph. 849-d6fl6 XA Si m- Rector. Dean Harry Sherman IP Ii fer-T 'Y II 'il II IKS 6:00 PM Eucharist I 1 11:00 PM Midnight Mass hit his head, said sheriff's Capt. John Guemple.

Guemple said the department will investigate the shooting but said he expects the probe to show the shooting was justified. 9:00 PM Family Mass 12:00 Midnight Mass Midnight Mass 1 1 .1 I 1 1 1 5 I I wm (Carols 10:30 PM) -Bishop Grady, Celebrant (Carols 11:30 PM) Christmas Day Masses: 7:30. 9:00 10:30 AM. 12:00 noon and 6:00 PM (Bi lingual) I.V i I Ii Christmas Day Services: KVVIX fi 1 Whittmore, who lived off Apopka-Vineland Road, fired a shotgun Monday at the home of Alfonso and Gertrude Portland, hitting Mrs. Portland, 51, In' the upper back as she tried to call the sheriff's office, police said.

He later tired at two deputies, who returned fire without knowing It they had hit Whittmore. After tiring tear gas into Whittmore' home 3'A hours later, deputies entered the house If sjf View the 600 luminaries decorating the landscape, tour both ft II jmL Cathedrals beautifully decorated for Christmas and partake of iMT Jj II ffs Christmas hospitality and fellowship and found him dead. Lake teachers vote for recall TAVARES Lake County teachers have voted to recall the entire board of the Lake Education Association. The unprecedented move leaves unclear how replacements will be named and who now speaks for the 650-member union. Under union bylaws, when a single board member is removed by a vote of the membership, his replacement is appointed by remaining board members.

The bylaws do not say what happens in rir i when the entire board is removed. Gail Burry, a teacher who led the campaign to uwrd saavs maw recall the board, said the vote Indicated union members were dissatisfied with the suspension and subsequent firing of former union executive director Tom Hervey. Burry said details for electing new board mem bers would be worked out by the policy-setting council of teachers who represent union members in individual school buildings. UCF doctoral program approved I SJjOPMQRAACLERMONTM DAILY SUN. 12-6 1 rllW LTrtCTWE MtJ'mWtff JSX fW I I DECEMBER 23,24, MOULT 1iV' ffl) II XJ- I Mi AREA KBART STORES rtftlK-' OTfiTif tPl itKTZX: I A proposed doctoral engineering program at the University of Central Florida won state Board of Regents approval Tuesday.

II i UCF President Trevor Colbourn said the program will help the school attract new engineering faculty. It also should draw new high-technology industries that are considering a move to Central Florida, he said. I I SHOP LEESBUR6. K1SS1MMEE. DEIAND I liUlU MQ 1 School officials said they will tap current resources to start the program, which will begin in January with about 12 students.

They plan to add II I MKjfKTIM i new faculty as the program expands toward its projected enrollment of 50 or 60 graduate students by the mid-1980s. UCF now has about 2,100 undergraduate and graduate engineering students. Briefly Five former or current members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang were convicted in federal liiiSilllSlIilll court in Tampa Tuesday of involvement in an interstate prostitution ring operating between Tampa and Meridian, Miss. U.S. District Judge W.

Terrell Hodges withheld adjudication of guilt and said he to Tell. would sentence Kenneth Hart, Carl Holley, James Hensley, Douglas Cole and James Hawkins at a lat er date. John Millage Hosey, 35, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday in the Dec. 15 rifle Look lor the wonderful stories, the joyous songs and special recipes of the holiday season featured with our Classified Christmas Gift Guide daily beginning Dec. 1st through Dec.

24th. slaying of Hillsborough County Deputy Sheriff Lemon Harvey, 34. Two Oviedo men, Fred John McConeghy, 58 i i si-i i i and Alex Lee Tindall, 43, were arrested Sunday in Fargo, N.D., and face federal charges of illegal de i ii i ii "i-- livery of a controlled substance as the result of sei zure of 18 ounces of cocaine with an estimated street value of $250,000, U.S. Attorney Rod Webb ITiiHH said. Charged with them is Buford Higgs, 27, of sjw Ham siicea to oraer i West Palm Beach.

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