Dorothy H. "Dottie" Duke, a homemaker and traveler, died Friday of breast cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. She was 86.

Dorothy Hammer was born in Baltimore and raised on Frederick Avenue. She was a 1941 graduate of Forest Park High School and graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

"Charcoal was her medium of choice, with portraits and landscapes her preferred subjects," said her husband of 53 years, Chester A. "Chet" Duke, a retired New York Life Insurance Co. chartered life insurance underwriter.

Mrs. Duke worked as a telephone operator for the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. and later as a bookkeeper for the old Robert Garrett & Sons, a Baltimore brokerage firm, before her marriage.

A longtime resident of Wakefield in Dulaney Valley, Mrs. Duke's philanthropic interests included the Baltimore Community Foundation, ARC of Baltimore, Virginia Tech Foundation and the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

For 50 years, Mrs. Duke enjoyed attending football and basketball games at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where her husband earned his bachelor's degree.

Mrs. Duke liked traveling by ocean liner and passenger train, and had ridden the fabled Orient Express. She also liked spending time at a second home on Mooselookmeguntic Lake in the Rangeley lakes region of Maine.

She was a communicant of Epiphany Episcopal Church, 2216 Pot Spring Road, Timonium, where a memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday.

In addition to her husband, survivors include two daughters, Lisa A. Duke and Sherrie L. Duke, both of Timonium; a sister, Carole Hammer Goodrich of Centreville; and three nieces and a nephew.