Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 8

Page A8 Central Illinois. Decatur, Illinois, Sunday, July 28, 1985 Effingham pace easier Harpist likes new life 1 "Every year at our Christmas party he plays his song (on the couple's piano), a one-finger jobby of 'Silent It brings down the house," Conway says. The harpist's life has changed, but she's kept busy. Much time was spent redecorating her home in her unique, offbeat style. Splashes of color from Picasso-looking paintings stand out from the front room's beige walls.

A man resembling the late Richard Daley, former Chicago mayor, snarls from another painting. And there are a few stick men figure statues a singer, a dancer and one cringing over toward the platform where the harp stands. "This guy has to listen to me practice so he looks like he's in a lot of pain," Conway says, laughing. Her professional life has picked up recently. Besides performing at the Ra-mada in Effingham and for weddings in Chicago, where she also makes tapes for commercials, Conway this fall will join the Eastern Illinois University Symphony Orchestra, made up of students and area musicians.

She also teaches harp to four students and is involved in starting an Effingham County Community Concerts Association. She is enjoying her life in the country, but keeps her contacts in Chicago and believes she could go back if she ever needs to. "I know what I'm capable of doing," Conway says. hard to guess her heritage. "I'm 100 percent Irish," she says, beaming.

What's a lass descended from the Emerald Isle who plays the harp like an angel doing in a land populated with Germans and cornfields? Marriage had a lot to do with it. Conway was living in a condominium on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, playing the harp in posh hotels and restaurants, when she met Ferretti through a friend. It was a whirlwind courtship. Ferretti was living and working in New York City as an assistant to the president of City Investing former owner of World Color Press. He commuted to see Conway and he used to kid her that "the dates are great but the walk home is a killer." They were married within a year.

After a short time living in New York City, Ferretti took a job as World Color Press' chief financial officer and senior vice president. They settled in Effingham, the company's corporate headquarters. Conway has not regretted leaving (he city at the peak of her career. In fact, she says, she wouldn't want to continue at the pace she was going before she got married, when she worked most evenings. "I would have had less time to spend with my husband." For his part, Ferretti has become Conway's biggest fan.

He's even learning to play the piano and harp. Honor Conway with subscriptions, but Conway says the big drive will be from Aug. 12 to 17. If most of the $11,000 to $12,000 needed to pay the artists is not collected by the end of that week, the concerts plan will have to be dropped, Conway says. But she says, "We've not had one bit of negative feedback.

I'm absolutely dead sure this is going work out." Subscriptions also entitle members to see the three concerts being held in both Olney and Paris. The board needs to sell 700 to 800 subscriptions to cover the entertainers' fees, Conway says. Sub 9.25 Jo rate" one of her harps. scriptions can be sold to people living outside Effingham County as well as county residents. Another $4,000 needs to be raised to support the association's work.

This money would be used for printing costs and advertisements, Conway says. Board members, who volunteer their time, are appealing to companies, organizations and individuals to contribute. She hopes the concerts expand community residents' artistic tastes. "If it helps get the community more musical and cultural, it's great," Conway says. EFFINGHAM Honor Conway believes the community needs good music.

She and other area residents say a new organization, the Effingham County Community Concerts Association, could help fill that need. Through community concerts, put on by Columbia Artists of New York, quality musicians are booked in towns that might not be able- to draw the talent otherwise. People in the area buy annual subscriptions to see concerts and the subscription costs cover the artists' fees. Other community concert asso 93 Loren Coleman Jr. Forteans create network By RON INGRAM Herald A Review Farm Business Writer Skeptics may scoff, but Loren Coleman Jr.

and his Fortean friends are uniting worldwide via computer to keep track of unusual or mysterious phenomena. A Decatur native, Coleman is director of the Institute of Fortean Studies in the United States. He describes the Portland, institute as an umbrella organization created for the computer network. "Fortean" is a term deriving from Charles Fort, who devoted his life to studying unexplained phenomena around the turn of the century. Coleman, 38, left Decatur in the early 1970s to pursue a dual career a social worker by day and an explorer of, and writer about, the mysterious during his leisure time.

He says he earns his income as a director of child welfare projects at the University of Southern Maine. His fourth book on the unexplained, "Curious Encounters," will be published in September by the Boston firm of Faber and Faber. Its subtitle gives an even better idea what awaits the reader: "Phantom Trains, Spooky Spots and Other Mysterious Wonders." Coleman's avocation has led him into the world of personal computers in an effort to better catalog and track information on unexplained phenomena worldwide. An Apple Macintosh computer sits in his Portland home and already is linked via an electronic bulletin board with about 25 other computer users throughout the United States who are interested in the off- beat and bizarre. Assisting Coleman in setting up the computer network is Bob Richard of London, England, who is working on the Forteans' data base known as TOAD, Treasury Of All Data.

The data base is necessary to standarize categories, Coleman says. For example, a fall of ice from the sky might be catalogued under the headings "ice," "fall" or "sky." Coleman says the network will allow people with whom he regularly corresponds to more easily track research and findings. He has 200 to 300 people interested in unexplained phenomena who have written him from such diverse places as New Zealand, Japan, France and Russia. Computer bulletin boards will be set up in both Portland and London. Coleman says the network should be completely in operation by spring.

He describes his latest book on the unexplained is a continuation of the investigations begun for his 1983 work, "Mysterious America." "In my third book, I looked at patterns and places, but in this book I look at timing," Coleman says. Approaching strange events with a degree of skepticism, he submits reported occurrences to several analyses a scientific approach to subjects frequently beyond the realm of what science accepts. What he has discovered is patterns in the timing of sightings. For example, April is a peak month for unusual phenomena occurrences, while very little happens during May. He is uncertain why these patterns appear.

Among chapters in his new book are those dealing with strange stone forts in Southern Illinois, California and Georgia, and thunderbirds large birds of unknown species sighted in Illinois from the 17th Century to 1979. ciations have been founded in Olney and Paris. Conway, a professional harpist, and other members of the Effingham County group's board of directors already have booked three concerts: the big band sounds of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra for Oct. 22; the classical music of the Panocha String Quartet for Nov. 25; and pop music by the New Christy Minstrels on Feb.

27. The Dorsey Orchestra and Christy Minstrels will perform at Effingham High School and the string quartet will play at Central School on south U.S. 45. The board has begun selling 9.69 yield Text and photo By SUSAN MUMM Herald Review Staff Writer EFFINGHAM The words "I HARP" on the license plates of Honor Conway's Mercedes sports car leave no doubt. The 31-year-old plays the harp professionally.

She began learning when she was just 8 and later studied under Edward Druzinsky, harpist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music from Northwestern University, Evanston. She has a collection of instruments that rivals heaven's. Besides her many perfume bottles and knickknacks in the shape of harps, she has two concert instruments and two smaller Irish harps at her spacious Lake Sara home. She has another concert harp at the EffinghamRamada Inn where she plays Mondays and Wednesdays, and a fourth at her father's home in Chicago for engagements there.

Her pride a huge, 6-foot-tall beauty carved from mostly maple wood stands on a platform in her home's front room. The platform sold her and her husband, Gene Ferretti, on the house because it was perfect for displaying the harp. Sitting with the graceful instrument braced against her shoulder, her small hands flying across the strings, Conway makes a pretty picture. A petite woman with auburn hair and green eyes, it's not Concert group formed Robbers get purse, $150 A 24-year-old Decatur woman lost her purse and about $150 Saturday in an early-morning robbery. Elaine G.

Worth was picking up mail at her recently vacated apartment in the 300 Block W. Main St. when she was accosted by two men about 12:10 a.m., according to police reports. Her car was parked in an alley, by the back door of the apartment. When she returned to her car she found the men walking up to the rear of the car, police said.

She got into the driver's side of the car, but was stopped from shutting the door when one of the men, carrying a short, wide-bladed knife, reached into the car, police said. She kicked and hit him while he reached over her and grabbed her purse from the front seat of the car. The two men ran away from the scene, police said. There are no suspects, but an investigation is continuing. Lakewood teen wins fair crown SHELBYVILLE Kathy Ann Snyder, 16, of Lakewood will preside over the Shelby County Fair when it begins its five-day run Friday.

Kathy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Keith Snyder, was crowned Shelby County 4-H and Junior Fair Queen Saturday night after swimsuit, evening gown and interview competitions. She is the first fair queen in 12 years. She will receive several savings bonds totaling about $300, a crown, necklace and a trophy.

First runner-up was Kim Ann Miller, 17, of Cowden. She will receive a $50 savings bond and a trophy. Kim is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Delbert Miller.

There were 19 contestants. The Chicago-based diversified manufacturer said Friday that the proposed tax-free stock distribution hinges on approval from the corporation's board and the Internal Revenue Service. Under the plan, Borg-Warner would shed itself of what the company said is its worst-performing subsidiary. Despite accounting for 16 percent of company sales last year, the unit contributed less than 2 percent of Borg-Warner's operating profit for 1984, the company said. That's what Mutual Home Savings is now paying for 5 -year certificates of deposit.

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.1 York air-conditioning division to go public 135 Main Decatur 429-2306 855 N. Faimaw Decatur 429-3095 701 Panning Decatur 877-9493 211 S. Quincy St, Clinton 935-2186 318 Main St, Snelbyntle 774-2185 602 S. Vina St, Urbana 367-3662 HOME AND CHICAGO (AP) Borg-Warner Corp. says it plans to spin off its subsidiary that makes York air-conditioning equipment into an independent, publicly held company.

However, this will not have any effect on Decatur's York Automotive Plant, said William S. Blalock, president of the Auto Components Group. The Decatur plant produces automatic air compressors and has no ties with the York division producing commercial and home air conditioners, he said. One of Illinois' Strongest Savings Institutions Rate effective through 7-30-85 Substantial penalty for early withdrawal.