In Memoriam
Dawn Blackstock Flemming
(1973 - Dec. 8, 2004)
Broadcasting, Class of 1996.
Dawn Blackstock, 31, was from Queens, N.Y. She studied radio broadcasting at Buffalo State.
While still in college, Dawn interned at Infinity Broadcasting's WBLK radio in Buffalo and was hired in 1995 as a part-time promotions assistant and DJ. After graduation, she worked full-time for the station, becoming part of the morning show "Hukher and Dawn." On air, she was known as "Break-a-Dawn." She also worked as a counselor with YO! Buffalo Youth Opportunities.
In 2002, she transferred to Infinity's WJHM radio in Orlando, Fla., working as co-host of the No. 1-rated Orlando morning show and public service director. In Orlando, Dawn was active in community affairs, working with groups such as Head Start, BASE Camp Children's Cancer Foundation, 2nd Harvest Food Bank, Coalition for the Homeless, NAACP, and Hospice of the Comforter.
Dawn died in Orlando, two weeks after giving birth to her first child. She is survived by her husband, Tony, and their newborn daughter, Toni Charlize.
Lawrence B. Peita
(Dec 27, 1967-Nov. 19, 2004)
Broadcasting, Class of 1999
Lawrence Peita, 36, was a native of Amherst, N.Y. He studied at the University of Miami before transferring to Buffalo State College to study television broadcasting.
After graduation, Lawrence worked as a television reporter in Watertown, N.Y. In 2000 he returned to Buffalo and worked as a broadcast journalist with WBEN Radio in Buffalo, where listeners knew him as Ben Newman. He later worked at a television station in Tampa, Fla.
Lawrence was involved in community theater. He also played amateur hockey in a Florida league before illness forced his return to his family home in Getzville in 2002. He died at the Center for Hospice and Palliative care in Cheektowaga after a lengthy struggle with brain cancer.