In the news this week 48 years ago:
• U.K. native and Sewickley resident Jo Fischer was profiled for her skill in restoring antique dolls, including family heirlooms brought to her by local families.
“Some of the dolls that are brought to Jo for repairs are also in need of clothes,” reporter Ann Weiss wrote. “If it is an antique one, she researches the style of the time, hunting through fabric stores for materials with an old-fashioned look. She designs and sews the dress and undergarments with bustles, flounces, and ruffles as close to the fashion of the age as possible.”
In addition to her repair business, Fischer also created her own line of cuddly, pink-cheeked cloth dolls with embroidered features, working from a popular pattern, which she then customized. Some she costumed in calico prints with pantaloons and sunbonnets, while others Fischer dressed as Harmonite boys and girls to be sold in the gift shop at Old Economy Village.
• A miniature golf course was approved for the former site of Scott Oil along Ohio River Boulevard in Edgeworth. The partners requesting the zoning variance also planned to include a pizza and doughnut shop at the site.
• Sculptor and Sewickley Valley native David Heberling won an arts competition put on by the organization Ann Arbor Tomorrow. His entry, an abstract design for a then-untitled monumental gateway sculpture constructed of Cor-Ten steel, was erected in 1978. Now titled Arch, it still stands in the public sculpture plaza at N. Fourth Ave. and Catherine Street in Ann Arbor, Mich.
