Dear Group, In this morning's Niagara Gazette I got a shock when I read the obituary page. I read that Thomas J. Cottonaro, 86 years old, of Ashland Avenue, Niagara Falls, NY, died Wednesday, February 7, in Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center after a year long illness. Who was Tommy Cottonaro? He was our very special Munchkin and was known around here as the Mayor of Munchkin Land. Why? Well because he had been a film actor and was one of the Munchkins in the original 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz. Actually he was the Bearded Man of the Munchkins. He was the last surviving Munchkins of the Wizard of Oz. I had seen Tommy around town over the years but I especially remember him when he was the manager and maitre de at Hardings Restaurant here in Youngstown in the 1970s. He was such a charming gentleman and was modest along with it. What I didn't know was that he was born in Castrogiovanni, Italy, had come to Buffalo as an infant and graduated from Buffalo Technical High School and Cornell University Food Service School. And aside from the number of movies he acted in from 1939 to 1955-the Gazette reported that he had actually played the part of Cheetah in a Tarzan movie!-most of his life revolved around the restaurant business. He met his wife of 45 years while filming a TV pilot in California and since then it seems that his remaining life was devoted to the food service business in this area. He was loved around here and in 1991 the Niagara Falls City Council officially declared May 1 as "Tommy Cottonaro Day" in the city. I was especially touched by what his wife Elizabeth (Billingsley) Cottonaro said about him, "I can't say enough about all the things he taught me. It was a wonderful, wonderful life." We'll all miss our Munchkin. (sigh!) vee