Girl Scouts Prepare Flowers for Hospitals

BLACK BUZZ NEWS SERVICE
The James S. Robinson Jr. Project
The Saunders & Robinson Archives
Pittsburgh, PA
October 16, 2010

The article titled: "Girl Scouts Prepare Flowers for Hospitals" appeared in the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph on January 24, 1945.

Allegheny County Girl Scouts will brighten up Easter for patients in district hospitals by decorating their Easter trays with gail-colored Easter baskets. The baskets have been made by girls of Troop 253 of Carrick, 342 of Edgewood, 238 of Penn Township, 484 of Hill City and 141 of Braddock.
Bedridden patients in Leech Farm Sanitarium, Columbia Hospital, the GAR Old Folks Home, Aspinwall Veterans Hospital, and the Braddock General Hospital are among those who will receive the baskets.

BLACK BUZZ SPEAKS
*Does anyone know if there are any active Girl Scouts Troops located presently in the Hill District section of Pittsburgh, PA?
At one time, the old Hill City Youth Municipality had the most comprehensive well runned all around youth and adult centered programs in the City of Pittsburgh which was due to the intelligent visionary leadership of James S. Robinson, Jr., his outstanding exemplary staff and the hundreds of highly sensitive skillful volunteers. Hill City employed such staff greats as Eunice Cook, James H. Williams, John A. Cundieff, Pronty Ford, Raymond Harris, Willis Brooks, Willis Wilson and Carl Redwood, Sr. who is the father of Carl Redwood, Jr.
Today, Carl Redwood Jr. is one of the truly exceptional men of color in the City of Pittsburgh, who has done yeoman outstanding work concerning a whole multitude of community development issues particularly with the shenanigans of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the City fathers over the building of the Consol Energy Center.
Kudos to Mrs. Redwood and the now deceased Carl Redwood, Sr. who did an outstanding job in helping to make Carl a champion and advocate for the people of the Hill District and throughout the City of Pittsburgh.
The legendary Hill City Band, led by Raymond Harris, was known all over the USA. The Hill City Band featured Thomas Turrentine Sr. and jazz greats, his famous sons Tommy, Stanley and Marvin Turrentine.
I played B flat clarinet in the famous Herron Hill Jr. High School Orchestra along with a sister of the Turrentines who played the violin, viola and the cello. Mrs. Turrentine, the mother of Tommy and Stanley was an excellent piano player.
International swimming Hall of Fame member and three time All-American, Nathaniel Clark, who was the first African American in the United States to score and place in an NCAA Championship in the sport of swimming while on scholarship at Ohio State University, and Nate played the oboe in the Herron Hill Jr. High School Orchestra.
Another legendary great athlete and my close friend, the late Barry Nixon of 556 Francis Street in the Hill District, played the french horn in the Herron Hill Jr. High School Orchestra. Other players in the orchestra were the late Ida Joyce Sharp who is the sister of retired Schenley school teacher, Anne Haley and who also lived on Francis Street. She played the violin, and the great Barbara Payne played the cello. The late Marsha Hord played the viola, Janis Harvey, Reverend Harvey's daughter of Iowa Street played the cello, and George Talley, the son of Rev. Talley, the pastor of Central Baptist Church, played the bass fiddle.
There have probably been more talented people to come out of the Hill District of Pittsburgh, PA than any other community in the USA.
A countless number of other great Pittsburgh musicians got a lot of their musical training while playing in the Hill City Band.
Former Hill City Band members are presently living all over the City of Pittsburgh and throughout the USA. The Hill City Band performed at various functions in the City of Pittsburgh and played on many Sundays in the spring, summer and fall in the spectacular historic parades in the Hill District.
Pittsburgh Board of Education administrator retiree Tony Delaney, who lived in the upper Hill District, remembers playing in the famous Hill City Band, and has been quoted as saying that it was "one of the most rewarding experiences in her youth to play in the Hill City Band."
We are just beginning to scratch the surface in documenting the events and people that make up the James S. Robinson Jr. Project.