Rena S. Sugar, a retired city public school educator and gift shop owner, died Feb. 17 of heart failure at Atrium Village, an Owings Mills assisted-living facility.

She was 97.

Rena Sharp was born in Baltimore and raised on Sharp's Farm, her family's Civil War-era home on Liberty Road near today's Woodmoor Shopping Center.

She was a 1928 graduate of Catonsville High School and earned her teaching degree two years later from what is now Towson University.

Mrs. Sugar, who was an elementary school teacher, began teaching in city public schools in 1933 and retired in 1964 from Pimlico Elementary School, where she spent most of her career.

Mrs. Sugar also worked with her husband of 33 years, Howard Sugar, who owned and operated The Gift Box, an Aberdeen jewelry and gift shop. He died in 1979.

A longtime resident of Cherokee Drive in Pikesville, Mrs. Sugar had lived at Atrium Village since 2001.

She enjoyed power walking, gardening, golf and sewing. She also liked playing Scrabble and taking automobile trips.

Services were held Feb. 21.

Surviving are a sister, Bernice Epstein of Pikesville; many nieces and nephews; and her companion of seven years, Dr. Louis Rothman, who is 101.