FRIDAY, FEB. 22, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Veteran recalls war through art
By Mike Gilligan Kansan staff writer
Abe Osheroff, an 87-year-old Spanish Civil War veteran, had a moment of silence during his presentation yesterday. The silence was for the victims of the war the United States is waging on Afghanistan.
"The damage we are doing in Afghanistan is almost beyond American comprehension," Osheroff said. "In a few years I think we will see that a lot of hanky-panky went on
under the American flag during Bush's administration."
About 150 people attended Osheroff's presentation in the Spencer Museum of Art about the Spanish Civil War, which included a movie he directed entitled Art in the Struggle for Freedom. A question-and-answer session followed.
The film is a 27-minute documentary about the war, which Osheroff volunteered to fight in. The war, a battle against fascism in Europe, lasted from 1936 to 1939. He said he
KIMBERLY THOMPSON/KANSAN
Abe Osheroff talks to University of Kansas graduate students about his video, 'Art in the Struggle for Freedom'. Osheroff spoke to a crowd of about 150 yesterday at the auditorium in the Spencer Museum of Art.
was one of 3,000 American volunteers. Osheroff was a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
His film focuses on the various forms of art and artists that flourished during the war. The film included posters, postcards and poems from the era read by different scholars.
Osheroff, who also served in World War II, said art was important in the war because many Spanish people were illiterate. He also art could capture emotions better.
Osheroff also talked about the important role women played in the war.
"History cannot tell the whole story of what happened," Osheroff said. "To demonstrate the passion and emotions, we need art."
The Spanish economy would have fallen apart if it wasn't for women taking the jobs of men who went off to war, Osheroff said.
"They were very active in the health services," he said. "They were caring for injured people on the front line and many of them died in duty."
The American government was unhappy with the men who volunteered to go to Spain, Osheroff said.
"When we came back we couldn't get a passport to travel or a decent job," Osheroff said. "But it was a small price to pay for fighting fascism."
Matt Nelson, Wichita sophomore, said he liked the presentation.
"He seemed like a really normal guy for all the atrocities he has seen," Nelson said. "And I can respect his views on Afghanistan even though they are contrary to popular belief."
Contact Gilligan at mgilian@kansan.com.
This story was edited by Justin Henning.
Corpses continue to surface in Georgia
The Associated Press
NOBLE, Ga. — He was in line to be deacon of his church. He coached youth football. He was a young man respected in this small community as the heir to a family business.
And yet, Ray Brent Marsh is now at the center of a ghastly discovery that is growing by the day in the pine woods of northern Georgia;
Hundreds of decaying or mummified bodies have been found stacked in pits, caskets and above-ground vaults on the Marsh family property behind their business, the Tri-State Crematory.
Authorities trying to comprehend the tragedy have speculated that the 28-year-old Marsh was greedy, or just lazy, that he simply left bodies wherever it was convenient. Townspeople are struggling to understand how he could have done such a thing and lived such an outwardly normal, respectable life.
Pearl Goodloe, a longtime neighborhood friend, said that maybe Marsh was just desensitized to death after so many years around the crematorium, which was run for years by his parents.
"If you grow up around it," she said, "you're comfortable with it."
marsh took over the business six years ago, and people who live around the crematorium said they watched him coming and going on their narrow country road in this county of 30,000. They figured all along he was
making a good living, minding his own business and his family's.
"His whole family, they are outstanding people," said the Rev. William Stamper, pastor of New Home Missionary Baptist Church, where the Marsh family have long been members.
At the church, Marsh was a candidate to become a deacon and was always quick to organize games, to be the master of ceremonies at church events.
Often, Goodloe said, the pastor would announce to the small congregation: "We are missing Brother Brent because he had to work today."
People who knew him from the city recreation department, where Marsh coached youth football and basketball, said he was always good with children. He has a daughter of his own, just 2 weeks old.
At the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Marsh was a linebacker on the football team from 1992 to 1995.
"He was just one of those middle-of-the-road, dependable kind of kids," said Neal Magnassen, assistant athletic director. "He wasn't an All-American, but neither was he a kid who sat on the end of the bench and never got to play."
Now, white-shrouded forensic technicians are swarming the shores of the small lake on the Marsh property — the same place Marsh played as a child, the same shores where he got married. Investigators plan to drain the lake to see if there are bodies at the bottom.
"I still like Brent. I still consider him my friend." Johnson
keep going on."
Johnny Johnson former classmate
He remains in jail, refusing to talk. On Thursday, nearly a week after his arrest, he hired a lawyer, Ken Poston, to defend him on charges of theft by deception. At Poston's request, a judge issued a gag order in the case. Poston had no comment on the charges.
Johnny Johnson, who attended elementary school with Marsh, said of the gruesome discoveries: "I'm thinking that it is just the way he was brought up to do it. I don't see how you can do that ... and sleep."
Marsh lived with his wife and newborn in a one-story stone house, not far from the crematorium. Marsh's wife, who works in Chattanooga, has been staying elsewhere with their newborn daughter since his arrest.
Marsh's father, 75-year-old Ray, who attends church in a wheelchair, has been implicated by authorities who say some of the discarded bodies have been on the property 15 years, possibly longer.
Marsh's 70-year-old mother, Clara Marsh, is a career educator, a former Walker County Citizen of the Year and Democratic Party chairwoman. Sherif Steve
Wilson said she was involved in the business but not in a "handson" role.
The elder Marsh got into the business because he had a backhoe. He quit his job as a postal worker to dig graves. He expanded his business to include cemetery vault sales and eventually opened a crematory. In 1982, he ordered a brick-lined oven that would burn bodies at 2,300 degrees.
Families paid funeral homes in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee between $200 to $1,500 for cremations that for the most part never happened, according to investigators. The bodies were discarded and families were given boxes filled with a mix of dirt, cement and wood ashes.
"I still like Brent. I still consider him my friend," Johnson said. "You've got to forgive people and keep going on."
That won't be so easy for a lot of families.
Marlene Elsass of Birchwood, Tenn., whose husband's body was taken to the crematory following his 2000 death in a tractor accident, said she was angry that charges against Marsh are not more serious. Each of the 16 counts carries up to 15 years in prison.
"They need to do the worst they can do." a sobbing Elsass said. "He has done the worst thing that could possibly be done."
SARA SHEPHERD/KANSAN
Associate professor Sandra Gray plays the role of a cancer patient in the play Wit. Mark Mackie, Crystal Lake, Ill., sophomore (third from left) also has a role in the play, which opens March 1, at the Lawrence Community Theatre, 1501 New Hampshire, St.
Acclaimed stage play coming to Lawrence
By Lauren Beatty Kansan staff writer
A play about professor who shuts out her family and friends to focus on academia is coming to the Lawrence Community Theatre next week.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Wit, is the story of the life and death of Vivian Bearing, an English professor whose studies focus on the 17th century metaphysical poet John Donne. The play, by Margaret Edson, had its world debut in 1995, but won the Pulitzer in 1999.
Penny Weiner, the play's director, said Bearing had an illness and used her wit to help get her through tough times while in the hospital.
"She's diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer and the play is about the final phases of her life and the choices she's made." Weiner said.
Weiner said Bearing came to terms with her illness, the rigorous life she's led and the fact that she shut out friends and family to pursue academia.
This is the second time Weiner has directed *Wit*. She staged the play last fall at Washburn University in Topeka, where she is a professor of theater. Weiner said Mary Doveton, director of the Theatre, 1501 New Hampshire St., saw the play at Washburn and asked her to bring it to Lawrence.
"I thought it would be interesting to adapt it to this stage," Weiner said. "It's just another
chance to play with it. There's no reason to do plays except for love."
Sandra Gray, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, plays the lead role. Gray said she was involved with professional theater for 13 years before returning to school and becoming a professor. She played Vivian in the Washburn production and reprised her role for the community theater.
"The play has so many levels, it's very complex," Gray said. "You take away from it what baggage you came with."
Mark Mackie, Lawrence sophomore, has a small role in the play and said he got involved with the community theater through a friend who encouraged him to audition.
"It's very touching," he said. "If anybody has been in the hospital, they'll identify with this play. Even if you haven't, you'll still like it."
The play will be presented at 8 p.m. on March 1, 2, 8, 9, 15 and 16; at 7:30 p.m. on March 7 and 14; and 2:30 p.m. on March 3 and 10. Tickets for shows on Friday and Saturday are $14 for students and senior citizens and $15 for adults. The shows on Thursday and Sunday cost $11 for students and seniors and $12 for adults.
Contact Beaty at beaty@kansan.com. This story was edited by Sarah Warren.
Trisha Shurm performs the monologue of a woman sick of tampons, hygiene checks, and thongs to a standing room only crowd in The Vagina Monologues. The play kicked off the weekend with its first performance last night in the Burge Union with shows tonight and Saturday at 8pm in the Kansas Union.
VAGINA, VAGINA VAGINA
kansan.com
Visit kansan.com for a Vagina Monologues photo gallery
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