WMAR

Authorities say a Maryland woman vacationing in Florida died after falling from an eighth-floor motel balcony.

The Daytona Beach Police Department says 30-year-old Heather Crawford of Frostburg, Md., was either standing or sitting on the railing when she fell just before 3 a.m. on Saturday.

Foul play is not suspected.

WMAR

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating the drowning of a tourist from Maryland after a boat capsized Friday in heavy surf along the island’s north coast.

Spokesman Ricardo Castrodad said officials are interviewing survivors to determine whether any sanctions might be issued. He declined further comment, but the director of a local marine police unit said the captain could face criminal charges.

Director Victor Rivera said no one was wearing life vests, and that the boat launched from an area where a high-surf advisory sign was posted.

But the advisory does not prohibit boats from going into open sea, Castrodad said.

Authorities identified the victim as Gordon Loetz, who was in his mid 50s. They did not immediately know what city he was from.

Baltimore Sun

Frances Milstead, who reveled in her son Glenn’s outsized persona as Divine, the drag-queen star of many John Waters films, died Tuesday morning at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., hospice of complications from a stroke. She was 88.

[...]

On her MySpace page, where she was posting as recently as last month, detailing her fight against cancer, Ms. Milstead continued to talk glowingly about her son. Divine died on March 7, 1988, the day before he was to audition for a featured part on the TV sitcom Married…With Children.

[...]

Ms. Milstead, who last saw her son at the 1988 premiere of Hairspray, came to revel in her son’s success, and eventually became popular in her own right. She was the author (with Towson University film instructor and documentary filmmaker Steve Yeager) of the 2001 book, My Son Divine and was later the subject of her own documentary film, Frances: A Mother Divine.

Baltimore Sun

George Kell, the Hall of Fame third baseman who edged Ted Williams for the 1949 American League batting title before putting the finishing touches on his 15-year career with the Orioles, died Tuesday. He was 86.

[...]

Kell outlasted Williams for the 1949 batting crown, hitting .34291 while the Boston Red Sox great finished at .34276. Kell hit more than .300 nine times and compiled a career average of .306. He was a 10-time All-Star.

WBAL.com

Christine Sarbanes, the wife of former U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes and mother of current U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, has died. She was 73.

Makeda Scott, a spokeswoman for Rep. John Sarbanes, said Monday that the retired teacher died at home in Baltimore on Sunday. Scott did not know the cause of death.

Sarbanes taught Latin and Greek at Gilman School in Baltimore for more than 20 years before retiring in 2000. She was previously on the faculty at Goucher College.

Sarbanes earned a bachelor’s degree in 1959 from St. Hugh’s College at Oxford University in England.

She began teaching Latin at Dana Hall School for Girls in Wellesley, Mass. She married the former senator in 1960.