SIX PAIRS AT 50 YEARS STILL A RECORD.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Odds and ends from around the Valley:

He's not sure if it's a record, but in California it's a miracle, Dale Anderson figures.

In a few months, Anderson, 77, will be the sixth member of his family to celebrate 50 years of marriage. ``I have three sisters and two brothers who have celebrated their 50 years of marriage already, and, Lord willing, June and I will be celebrating our golden anniversary this year,'' the Mission Hills man says.

``There are not many marriages that last 50 years, what with half of them ending in divorce, and second marriages even worse.

``Then, of course, there's the matter of living that long,'' Dale says.

I checked with the ``Guinness Book of Records,'' and the Andersons are four marriages short of a record. The most golden wedding anniversaries in a family is 10 - the six sons and four daughters of Joseph and Sophia Gresl of Wisconsin, and the six sons and four daughters of George and Eleonora Hopkins of Virginia.

But Dale's right. They may not have the record, but in divorce-crazy California, the Andersons are a miracle.

Bureaucratic form letters are always a pretty cold thing, but the one Judy Forbes of North Hills received a few weeks ago from the Juror Services Division of the Los Angeles County Superior Court was downright chilling.

It was addressed to her son, Michael, who died of a rare disease in April 2000 at age 27.

The form letter which arrived by mail earlier this month - a day before Mike would have turned 29 - began, ``This is to certify that you have been permanently excused from jury duty, based on documentation we have received from you indicating your permanent incapacity to serve.''

Permanent incapacity? Mike had died.

Forbes sent that death documentation to the Juror Services Division almost two years ago, right after her son received a jury summons soon after his death.

``I was shocked when I opened the form letter up,'' she said. ``It was right before his birthday this month, and brought back so many painful memories. I just started crying.

``Isn't there a way to remove the name of someone who has died from a form letter like this so his loved ones can be spared the agony?'' she asked.

You would hope so, but it looks like the Juror Services Division didn't take it into account when they started mailing out these permanent excusal letters last month so people could have written proof they were exempt from jury duty.

``We started getting so many letters from people requesting permanent removal (from jury duty) for health reasons that the only way to keep up with it was mailing back a form letter,'' said Jerrianne Hayslett, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

``We didn't have a form letter for anyone who died, and we now realize the letter we're sending out to everyone being permanently excused from jury duty can be an insensitive thing for people who have lost a family member.

``We're going to re-evaluate the process because we certainly don't want to cause loved ones any more agony than they've already been through,'' she said.

Like an old Timex watch, Big Ed Rasky just keeps on tickin' and tickin'.

For the 16th straight year, the 76-year-old West Hills man is lacing up his running shoes to carry in his heart a few dozen terminally ill kids with cancer on his strong shoulders for 26 miles in the L.A. Marathon next month.

His knees are shot, so his running days are over, Big Ed says, but that doesn't mean he can't walk the course with pledges from individual sponsors who want to help him send as many terminally ill kids as he can to summer camp again this year.

If you want to help Big Ed help some great kids, give him a call at his West Hills home - [phone].

And finally, kudos to the local schools that sponsored A Melody of Words, an evening of authors and artists sharing their stories and talents with hundreds of local school kids and their parents last week at Hale Middle School.

When we talk about turning on the learning light bulb for kids, this is the kind of special night that does it.

The schools taking part in this innovative literacy and arts fair were Calabash Street, Pomelo Drive, Woodlake Avenue, Lockhurst Drive, Haynes and Welby Way Elementary schools; Hale Middle School; and El Camino Real and Miguel Leonis high schools.