Delaware County Daily Times (Newspaper) - April 1, 1975, Chester, Pennsylvania Delaware County 173 HOME DELIVERY 75 CENTS MOTOR ROUTE TUESDAY APRIL 1 1975 FIFTEEN CENTS Daily Times bv WALT CHERNOKAL SOME 800 policemen stand at attention Monday outside Glenolden's First Presbyterian Church prior to funeral service for Chief Robert G Sparks as crowd looks on Other pictures on Page 10 Slain Glenolden chief buried By JAMES F BYRNES 3RD Daily Times Staff Writer Glenolden Police Chief Robert G Sparks was a low-key kind of guy who shunned the spotlight a man who did a lot for people without them knowing about it Bob Sparks a man who dreamed of being a policeman as a boy was Monday in a ceremony that reflected the quiet dignity of the man who gave his life to his job Sparks 45 was killed last Tuesday night as he and another policeman foiled a robbery attempt at a Glenolden drug store Several hundred policemen family members and friends as well as Glenolden officials employes and residents turned out on a chill sunny day to pay their final respects to Sparks Sparks was buried in wood Memorial Gardens in a next to the grave in which his father Clifford is buried There were brief graveside remarks by Rev Donald Landis pastor of Glenolden's First Presbyterian Church followed by a Fraternal Order of Police FOP service con- ducted by Val DeBenedetto president of Delaware County Lodge 27 Udell With his reputation for maintaining a low profile it somehow seemed fitting that Sparks was buried in a portion of the cemetery where there are no headstones only flat grave markers The 800 policemen who at- tended the funeral formed a large horseshoe around the grave site Related pictures on Page 10 Inside the horseshoe to the right was a large group of borough employes and residents that also included U.S Rep Robert Edgar of Marple and Delaware County Clerk of Courts Joseph W Dorsey a former state representative To the left were the gathered members of the Delaware County Police Chiefs Association FOP in- John Harrington national FOP president Thomas Garvey state FOP head DeBenedetto and other Lodge 27 officers and Charles Gallagher president of Philadelphia's Lodge 5 and members of Glenolden borough council Sparks mother brother and sisters and other family members were under a canopy where Mrs Sparks received a folded flag that had her son's casket from Mayor John J MacVeigh 3rd at the con- of the service The seven members of Sparks department led by a tearful Sgt Joseph Grant served as pallbearers Three police color guard units from Lodge 27 Chester Police and Upper Darby Police flanked the canopy Earlier at the First Presbyterian Church those gathered for the funeral service heard Mr Landis describe Sparks as a man who always wanted to be a policeman Last year when he became chief was the crowning achievement of his own sonal ambition and boyhood he said He was in training all his life and his life was absorbed by his work To those who might despair by the sudden triumph of chaos surrounding Sparks death Mr Landis said during the First we must forgive those who perpetrated the wrong and reaffirm our faith in God's will Remember those who destroyed the body of our friend were not able to touch so much as the shadow of his he said For him death is past pain is said Mr is living in the house of God Traffic was detoured off normally busy Chester Pike for its entire length in the borough at South Avenue to the west and Oak Lane to the east Hundreds of borough residents formed in a crowd outside the church as 190 police cars parked in long rows jammed the width of the pike Two fire engines were used to transport the bouquets of flowers from the church to the cemetery The Philadelphia Police Department band played outside the church and a man rifle team of Philadelphia policemen fired a salute to Sparks at the cemetery The uniformed policemen who attended the services came from as far away as Washington Baltimore and Long Island Representatives of all Delaware County departments were in attendance as were those from Downingtown West Chester Kennett Square Lower Merion and Lower Providence in surrounding counties Also Camden Burlington Millville Atlantic City Ocean City New Brunswick Trenton See Page I We're running out of oil and there's no substitute Dally Times Staff Writer imports are cut off and we continue at our current con- sumption rate the United States has only six years of oil reserves left according to Stewart L Udall former Secretary of the Interior in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations We are using eight to ten times more oil than is being Udall told 500 civic governmental and industrial leaders here Monday The energy crisis in 1975 can be described We are running out of petroleum and there is no Pulling no punches in describing national and local failures in energy and mass transportation planning during the last two decades Udall said grave v mistakes were made in the belief the United States had plenty of energy and it would always be cheap As the keynote speaker of the Year 2000 Conference set up by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission Udall said the country was and is still being misled The greatest hoax is the pretense that by allowing oil companies to maka greater they will go out and find more oil for Udall said Udall shouldered some of the blame for allowing the Interstate Highway system to be built at the expense of railroads and other forms of mass transportation Udall served four terms in the U.S House of Representatives as a Congressman from Arizona before he was appointed to Kennedy's Cabinet I voted for the Interstate system and I now look back with great he said We were victims of the automobile culture which defined progress as more cars and more ways That was the force that shaped thinking in the he said But I think we have reached the highpoint of the petroleum age The energy crisis is here to stay However we may have enough oil for the next 14 to 16 years if we conserve use smaller automobiles with smaller engines He also said the Interstate Highway System will be like the Pyramids of ancient Egypt puzzling monuments of the past Years from now people will look at our deserted highways and ask I what they were thinking about in See NATION Page n Inside your Daily Times Chester High's Ron Hunt breaks his own Delaware County record Page 13 Colonial menu comes to Concord Elementary School Page 8 Correct deficiencies now Page i It's a Four Aces didn't think of it sooner Page 3 Amusements 16 Bridge 22 Classified Comics 22 23 Community Clock 7 Correspondent List 23 Crossword Puzzle 23 Death Notices 4 SUNNY Editorials Financial News Horoscope Junior Editors Obituaries Outlook Section Sports Television 6 11 22 22 4 8 9 22 2 county girls shot bodies found in river The bodies of two Upper Darby High School girls who had been shot to death were recovered from the Schuylkill River in southwest Philadelphia Monday afternoon The victims were identified as Layne Dorothy Spicer 16 of 6922 Clinton Road Ann Lees 15 of 6921 Clinton Road The Philadelphia Medical office said the Lees girl had been shot three times and Miss Spicer twice The office said neither girl had been sexually molested Philadelphia and Upper Darby police conducting a joint intensive investigation said today they were baffled by the case and had no idea soever why the two girls were apparently murdered The mothers of the two girls Mrs Patricia Spicer and Mrs Mary Ann Lees reported the two girls missing at Friday The mothers said they had last seen the girls around p.m Thursday However police reported today the girls are believed to have spent Thursday evening at a friends house in the vicinity of W Chester Pike and Carol Boulevard in Upper Darby Lt Louis Falotica of the Upper Darby detective bureau said the girls are believed to have left that house around p.m Thursday The bodies were first seen in the river around p.m Monday near St and Ave by a man who was at work Jerry's Corner Market which had been damaged by fire several weeks ago The Philadelphia police harbor patrol recovered one body from the western edge of the river The other was recovered by crewmen of a Philadelphia fife boat Both bodies were clad One girl wore a gray coat with a fur collar a black sweater and blue dungarees The other also wore dungarees and had an Indian bracelet circled over her upper arm A spokesman for the medical office estimated the girls had been dead between 24 to 48 hours The office said after an autopsy hat the fatal shots apparently came from a small caliber weapon possibly Both Upper Darby Lt Falotica and Philadelphia Capt Sec TWO Page 12 In 4 traffic deaths Clifton man is charged A Clifton Heights man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with a traffic which claimed the lives of four persons John block N Oak Avenue was charged Monday in the deaths of three members of an Indiana County family and a passenger in his own car State Police originally listed Taylor's address as Mt Lake but said he recently moved from New Jersey to Clifton Heights The accident happened Saturday night along U.S 22 near Police said they were chasing the car driven by Taylor but Taylor sped away rounded a curve and crossed the center lane hitting a car members of the Kirsch family of Indiana County Killed were Henry Kirsch 27 his Frances 24 their daughter Renee Lynn and Edward Forster 48 Spring Gien the passenger in Taylor's car Mrs Kirsch who was eight months birth lo a stillborn infant before she died Taylor and Anna Marie Kirsch were both reported to be in critical con- dition at Johnstown Memorial Hospital Saigon troops forced to abandon Qui Nhon By The Associated Press Communist troops continued their speedy conquest of the central coast of South Vietnam today as the Saigon government abandoned Qui Nhon the country's third largest city Another North Vietnamese force pushed close to Nha Trang 100 miles down the coast and rioting broke out as the Saigon regime's representatives The U.S Consulate in Nha Trang which is 200 miles northeast of Saigon burned its records and evacuated its staff Shooting was heard in the city of people and at least one building was seen burning The Saigon command reported fighting at Due My and Hoa district capitals 15 miles north of Nha Trang but other sources said North Vietnamese sappers had been spotted inside Nha Trang The sources said most government administrative and military staffs had been evacuated from the threatened city Some fighting was reported around the Phu Cat air base once a major U.S Air Force base 20 miles north of Qui Nhon But it too was overrun and the Communist advance down the coast rolled on unchecked In neighboring Cambodia President Lon Nol left the country for Indonesia and the United Stales expressing the hope that his departure would open the way for peace negotiations with the Khmer Rouge insurgents The Viet Cong in a broadcast said if President Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam was ousted it was ready for peace talks with a new Saigon government to quickly settle all the affairs of South nam Former Premier Nguyen Cao Ky also called again for Thieu to quit cusing him of poor leadership The United States began a new airlift of military supplies to Saigon to replace some of the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment abandoned by the South Vietnamese army in the northern and central provinces A big Air Force transport made a nonstop flight from California with 14 howitzers and tons of munition and communications equipment The U S government also announced it was continuing efforts to evacuate South Vietnamese in front of the Communist advance It said four U.S ships were loading off Qui Nhon one each off Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang and one was still standing by off Da Nang in case any more escaped from that northern port which the North Vietnamese occupied Sunday Secretary of Defense James R Schlesinger who two weeks ago said an attack on Saigon would not come before next year predicted major action against the capital in the next month before the South Vietnamese army can stabilize its defenses Schlesinger said the United States continues to have an obligation to be helpful to South Vietnam but what particular form that help takes remains to be seen Some U.S government ex- perts in Washington said there See SAIGON Page 12 In Red Arrow talks Midnight deadline set Partly cloudy tonight low 35 Mostly sunny Wednesday high 55 Details on Page 12 except E St Chester fa Want Ads TR All Detriments f R Home oer UPPER DARBY Negotiations continued today in a effort to avert a strike of some 350 employes of the Red Arrow Division of Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority which operates 39 suburban bus and trolley routes A spokesman for SEPTA reported round the clock talks had been in progress since Monday and were scheduled to resume 9 breakfast break today Tony Ruger chief negotiator for members of Local Transportation Union UTU which is scheduled to strike when its contract expires at Wednesday if no new agreement is reached said key issues are wages transfers and sick leave also reported there was no possibility of extending the old contract beyond its expiration tonight The union is seeking an in- crease in the hourly wage from to in a 1 Ruger called the sick leave Related story on Page 12 problem a vital issue He said at present Red Arrow workers are not entitled to any pay for absences due to illness The union is seeking 12 paid sick days a year and is going to be very strong on establishing this principle In the contract Another crucial issue is proposal for a seniority plan to permit city transit division employes working part of their route in ti to transfer their seniority rights to the Red Arrow division Local 1594 is strongly opposed to this and said a strike would be unavoidable if insists on it City SEPTA workers won a cost-of-living clause in addition to a increase to an hour in their two-year contract following a recent strike UTU which is scheduled to strike when its contract expires at Wednesday if no new agreement is reached said key issues are wages transfers and sick leave Price cuts CAMDEN AP The Campbell Soup Co has an- price reductions on 13 of Us Swanson brand frown food effective today
