European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 23, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday february 23, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 7 White House ceremony called hypocritical Washington a Nancy Rea Gan joined schoolchildren in song and sign language to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the education Tor All handicapped Chil Dren act but one Republican lawmaker called the gathering hypocritical. The East room ceremony Friday was followed by a White House reception for 200 parents advocates for the handicapped and two disabled youths who were honoured by mrs. Reagan and Secretary of Educa Tion William j. Bennett. The ceremony was preceded by a Senate hearing at which sen. Lowell p. Wicker jr., r-conn., dismissed it As nothing but  Wicker chairman of the Senate sub committee on the handicapped and father of a boy with Down s syndrome denounced proposed cuts in handicapped programs and called the Reagan administration s record a  Wicker who refused an invitation to the White House said any future Celebration should be based on fact and not photo  nov. 29, 1975, then president Ford signed the Law guaranteeing All Handi capped people a free appropriate Public education in the least restrictive Environ ment. The program s budget grew from $100 million in fiscal 1976 to st.64 billion in fiscal 1985. Four million Young people be tween the Ages of 3 and 21 get help under the program. Twice during his first two years in office. President Reagan tried to Cut funds for educating the handicapped by about 25 per cent. But Congress led by Wicker and others fought off the cuts and actually increased spending on the handicapped. In the fiscal 1987 budget released a few weeks ago Rea Gan proposed rescinding some Money and then rolling Back the budget to the 1985 level. Wicker said the cuts would total si08 million. Mrs. Reagan told the audience in the East room there s nothing More important to a Parent than knowing his child has the Chance to develop his full potential and live his life with  the Federal Law she said has opened the door for this of  honoured As examples of the Law s Success were Joy Raskin 18, a deaf senior at con Cord High school in new Hampshire who has won awards for her jewelry designs. Blue Angels to Swap sky Hawks for hornets Washington a the Navy says its precision flying team the Blue Angels will Trade in its aging a-4f skyhawk jets for f/a-18 hornets next year. The Navy said Friday the Blue Angels will receive 10 Early production models of the Hornet which has become the service s front line fighter and attack Jet. The first delivery will be late this year with the first demonstration by the seven member team in the new air Craft scheduled for May 1987, the Navy said. In another announcement the Navy said it had awarded a s3.2 million contract to Mcdonnell Douglas corp. To modify 10 f/a-18s into a Blue Angels flight demonstration  the Blue Angels have been flying a-4fs for about 10 Yean. They Are about 20 years old. The air Force s Preci Sion flying team the thunderbird moved up to More students against apartheid anti apartheid students at Curk University in Worcester mass., March to demand that the University Ell Stock held by the school in companies that do business in South Africa. Modern f-16 fighters several years ago. The Navy said the sky Hawks now assigned to the Blue Angels would be used for undergraduate Pilot and Fleet adversary  although the particular f/a-18s that the team will receive Are not suitable for aircraft Carrier landings the Navy said the jets could easily be shifted to support Pilot training in the event of an emergency. Chlorine Cloud empties school hurts 76 people South Gate Calif. A a ruptured chlorine Gas line at a pure co. Plant created an irritating Green Cloud that forced the evacuation of a school and injured 76 people including 39 children authorities said. Dozens of people who inhaled the Gas went to emergency rooms Friday but hospitals reported admitting Only two people. Both were listed in Good condition. Authorities ordered the evacuation of Tweedy Elemen tary school which had 350 students on Friday in Kinder Garten through sixth Grade but classes resumed three hours after the Gas moved across the Campus. The leak which was reported at 8 30 a.m., apparently occurred when outside workers at the Plant Cut through a Gas line leading from a chlorine railway tank car to the Plant said Pam Good a spokeswoman for Percx s Parent company. Dial corp., in Phoenix Ariz. She did not know How much Gas escaped. Workers returned to work an hour after being evacuated from the Plant in South Gate a los Angeles suburb 10 Miles South of downtown she said. An adjacent Plant Macleod metals also was evacuated. County fire spokeswoman Deborah Shackleford said 76 people including 39 children were treated at area Hospi tals and at the scene. About 35 students and 12 teachers and aides were taken to three hospitals. A 10-year-old girl initially was admitted in critical condition. Best Selling author Santmyer Dies at 90 Xenia Ohio a Helen Hooven Santmyer whose novel ". And ladies of the club became a Surprise Best seller for the octogenarian author has died at the age of 90. Santmyer who had suffered from emphysema since 1976, died in her sleep Friday at the hospitality Home East nursing Home in Xenia where she had been a resident for about five years nursing supervisor Sylvia Rosenlieb said. Her novel which portrayed activities of a women s club in a Small Ohio town shot to no. 1 on the new York times Best seller list and sold More than 368.000 hardcover copies. The novel was the fourth she had published in 60 years but in a 1984 interview she bristled at the suggestion that it took her five decades to write the 1,176-Page Boot which also was a main selection of the Book of the month club. I keen hearing 50 years which is absurd she said. It May hav taken me 50 years to get it done but i did t do it a at once i had a living to make so i had a Job Here and Ajob there. Whatever the Job was it had to come first of course. A native of Cincinnati she moved to Xenia at a Young Ace but left to attend Wellesley College work in new York As a Secretary to the editor of Scibner s Magazine and earn a Bachelor of letters degree at Oxford University. While at Scribner a she met such literary giants As Ernest Hemingway William Faulkner and John Galsworthy. In the 1920s, she wrote two novels herbs and apples and the fierce  she returned to Xenia in 1929, i and later served As Dean of women and head of the English department at Cedarville College in Cedarville Ohio. She also was a reference librarian in Dayton.  ladies of the club was begun in the late 1920s As Santmyer s answer to Sinclair Lewis unflattering portrait of Small town America in his 1920 novel main  her Book takes place in Southwest Ern Ohio and covers uie period be Santmyer tween 1868 and 1932. The title refers to members of the local women s literary club through whom the town s Polit ical cultural and social changes Are related. Her Friend of 57 years mid Rcd Sandoe who also lived at the Home helped Santmyer edit the Book. It originally was published in 1982 by Ohio state University press which in 1963 had published Ohio town a Book of Santmyer s reminiscences. Only a few Hundred copies were sold most to libraries but it got new life when Grace Sindell of Shaker Heights Ohio overheard a librarian talking about the Book. Sindell read it and persuaded her son a los an a Clos producer writer and director to read it. It was then shown to others in the publishing world and was eventually acquired by . Putnam s sons which published it in 1983. After publication of  ladies of the club Santmyer became an instant celebrity at the nursing Home where a Small Handwritten sign told autograph seekers to first Check at the nurse s station. She never married. She is survived by a Niece mrs. John Williamson. Burial will take place in a private ceremony at Woodland cemetery in Xenia