Charlotte Winters: Was Last Woman Standing

Charlotte Winters served at a gun production facility

The Associated Press

BOONSBORO, Md. - Charlotte Winters, the last surviving female World War I veteran, has died, the U.S. Naval District in Washington said Wednesday. She was 109.

Winters, who served as a yeoman in the U.S. Naval Reserve, died Tuesday at Fahrney-Keedy home near Boonsboro, The (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail reported. She was born Nov. 10, 1897, in Washington.

She served at a gun production facility at the Washington Navy Yard and in other positions there until she retired in 1953. Her friends told the Herald-Mail she was proud of her work as a secretary for the U.S. Navy. But they said she didn't understand what all the fuss was about as she got older and there were fewer and fewer WWI veterans alive.

"Why are they doing this for me? I don't deserve all this," Doug Bast of Boonsboro recalled her saying.

Her friend Kelly Auber said Winters told Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels in 1916 that women should be allowed to join the service. When women were allowed after March 1917, Auber said, Winters and her sister were quick to participate.

By December 1918, the Naval District said more than 11,000 women had enlisted and were serving in support positions such as secretarial and clerical jobs.

Winters' funeral is planned Friday at the Bast Funeral Home in Boonsboro. She will be buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.

Urbina sentenced to prison in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Former Major League Baseball pitcher Ugueth Urbina was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the attempted murder of five workers on his family's ranch, the Attorney General's Office announced Wednesday.

Urbina, a former pitcher with the Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies, was also found guilty of illegal deprivation of liberty and violating a prohibition against taking justice into his own hands during a dispute over a gun on Oct. 16, 2005, according to a statement from the Attorney General's Office.

"I am very disappointed and upset," his agent, Peter Greenberg, told ESPN. "We're hopeful that the judicial process will exonerate Uggie. I firmly believe he's innocent."

The 33-year-old free agent was accused of joining a group of men in attacking and injuring workers with machetes and pouring gasoline on them at his family's ranch, located about 25 miles south of Caracas.

"The ruling was too severe," said Jose Antonio Baez, a former attorney who represented Urbina.

Urbina repeatedly has denied involvement in the violent attack, saying he was sleeping at the time.

But Wuanyer Perez, the attorney for the accusers, told ESPN that "justice has been served" and indicated that his clients will seek damages in civil court.

"We think it is an excellent sentence. The victims consider this an important example that anyone with power, influence and money is not above the law," Perez said. "It is an example for the entire world, not just for Venezuela, that everyone is on equal ground when it comes to the law and justice."

"There is an appeal process here in Venezuela and we are prepared to answer if they decide to take that route," Perez said. "Now that the criminal case is concluded, we are prepared to take this case to the civil side and we will seek damages. The victims have gotten better, but the psychological impact remains."

The pitcher's lawyer, Jose Luis Tamayo, has said that Urbina surprised the workers by showing up at his ranch that night while they were bathing in the pool without permission. Urbina spoke sharply to them, but later left and went to sleep, according to Tamayo.

Urbina, a two-time All-Star, last pitched in the major leagues with the Phillies in 2005. He's 30th on the all-time saves list with 237. He had two saves in the 2003 World Series for the victorious Marlins.

In 11 major league seasons with the Expos, Boston Red Sox, Rangers, Marlins, Tigers and Phillies, Urbina went 44-49 with a 3.45 ERA. He led the National League with 41 saves in 1999 with the Expos and was third in the AL with 40 saves for the Red Sox in 2002.