Betsy F. Gorman, who had worked at Kennedy Krieger Institute and later owned a bookstore and was an auctioneer's sales representative, died Feb. 2 of ovarian cancer at her Lutherville home. She was 75.
Betsy Fisher, who was a direct descendent of Alexander Brown, founder of Alex. Brown & Sons, and Louis McLane, who was secretary of state and secretary of the treasury during the administration of President Andrew Jackson, was born in Baltimore and raised in Ruxton and Butler.
She was a 1953 graduate of Garrison Forest School and attended what is now Stevenson University. She made her debut at the Bachelors Cotillon.
During the 1970s, Mrs. Gorman worked as a social worker at Kennedy Krieger Institute in East Baltimore. During the 1980s, she owned and operated The Bookstore at Stevenson Village in Baltimore County.
Throughout the 1990s until retiring, she was a local sales representative for Christie's auction house.
Mrs. Gorman enjoyed playing golf and made a hole-in-one at Green Spring Valley Hunt Club, where she was a member. She was also a member of the Mount Vernon Club.
She was an avid gardener and flower arranger, and enjoyed reading and playing bridge.
Mrs. Gorman's first marriage, to Thomas Cover IV, ended in divorce.
"She was married for eight months to H. Parker Matthai, who died in 1981. Her marriage to Ogden C. Gorman lasted five weeks before his death in 1992," said a brother, Alex. G. Fisher of Ruxton.
She was a longtime communicant of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Owings Mills, where a memorial service was held Feb. 5.
Also surviving are two sons, Thomas H. Cover of Cockeysville and McLane Fisher Cover of Dedham, Mass.; two other brothers, McLane Fisher of Black Butte Ranch, Ore., and D.K. Este Fisher III of Mount Crawford, Va.; and four grandchildren.