Ramona

Kent Taylor, a former awning salesman whose acting career included the lead role in the 1950s television series "Boston Blackie," died in his sleep early Saturday morning at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital. "He was tired out," said Augusta Taylor, his wife of 57 years. She said the 80-year-old actor had had several heart operations and was being tended by a nurse in their North Hollywood home until he was admitted to the hospital Thursday.

The gig: Ramona Pierson, 51, is chief executive of Declara, a start-up based in Palo Alto that has developed a way for companies to use sophisticated techniques and advanced Internet search to create workplace tools. In two years, it has grown to 57 employees, and the company has attracted $5 million in funding from such notable investors as Peter Thiel. The journey: As impressive as the company's start has been, it's Pierson's back story that is particularly special.

A tearful Poway man was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years to life in state prison for killing his ex-girlfriend and her 5-year-old son and burying them in Ramona. Thomas Curby Henderson, 33, was sentenced by San Diego Superior Court Judge J. Richard Haden after the slain woman's mother and ex-husband urged that Henderson receive the maximum punishment. Henderson pleaded guilty Oct. 9 to the second-degree murder of Deborah Cooney, 32, of Ramona, and the first-degree murder of David Cooney, 5.

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SAN DIEGO - A student at Ramona High School in northeast San Diego County died Wednesday hours after being hit in the chest with a ball, officials said The 16-year-old sophomore was playing over-the-line, a softball-like sport, during a P.E. class when he was struck by a line drive. He later collapsed and was taken to a local hospital, where he was declared dead. His name has not been released. Principal Tony Newman said the ball being used is even softer than a normal softball.

A real estate agent in Portland, Ore., has gotten hold of a literary property: The childhood home of children's book author Beverly Cleary. The 1910 bungalow was listed this month at $362,000. Cleary is 96 and in an assisted living facility that celebrates her work -- Ramona is everywhere. Her family moved to Portland from rural Oregon when Cleary was 6. She published her first novel, "Henry Huggins," in 1950. The middle-reader book included a minor character, a bratty little sister named Ramona.

The documentary "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey" covers a recent - and most unlikely - chapter in the history of the venerable rock band Journey, which has had one of the longer and more unusual stories in rock music. (Call it a journey if you must.) Beginning as something of an instrumental fusion band in the early 1970s, its members later made a concerted effort to play more radio-friendly songs with vocals, eventually striking gold with singer Steve Perry and the now-iconic '80s tunes "Open Arms," "Separate Ways" and, of course, "Don't Stop Believin'.

We just returned from a three-day "staycation" in Ramona, Calif. We stayed at the San Vicente Resort, and I was impressed with what a great deal this lodge is. All the rooms have a balcony overlooking the beautiful golf course. The resort also has lighted tennis courts and an Olympic-size pool. It's a short drive to the Barona Casino and numerous antique shops. We got a AAA rate of less than $80 a night, which includes a $4-per-person (up to two people) daily discount at the on-site restaurant.

BOOKS Debut novelist Ramona Ausubel has her characters forget time and history in "No One Is Here Except All of Us. " It's 1939, and the families of a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war closing in around them. At the suggestion of a mysterious stranger who washes up on the riverbank, they reassign spouses, children and other marks of familial history in an attempt to keep the tides of change at bay. She will be reading and signing her novel. Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave. 7:30 p.m. Fri. Free.

Brush fires broke out in three Southern California counties Monday, scorching hundreds of acres, forcing the evacuation of several dozen homes and threatening other structures. A blaze near the Pala American Indian reservation in northern San Diego County had burned more than 300 acres. Thirty-five homes were under evacuation orders and 605 firefighters were on the fire line, officials said Monday night. Meanwhile, two other fires in the region were contained as crews worked in triple-digit temperatures to beat back flames.

What will become of Genesis? There she is, at her school graduation, standing in the sun-stroked courtyard of Ramona Opportunity High School, a beige campus on a dead-end street in East Los Angeles. It's a bare-bones affair but freighted with meaning. A string of balloons lollygags beside a stage. A few families watch from plastic chairs. On a wall someone has taped a piece of paper and scrawled a message: Congrats Ladies. AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Genesis tells her story Moonfaced, 17 and, right now, teary, Genesis Diaz is the student body president.

Ramona Hahn Wife, mother of L.A.-area politicians Ramona Hahn, 86, widow of the late county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and mother of both former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, died Monday, her children announced. She was a longtime resident of San Pedro, where she died. Her death came one day before the special election in the 36th Congressional District won by Janice Hahn, the Democratic nominee for the South-Bay based seat.