Katherine Symington, Active in gardening

A memorial Mass for Katherine S. Symington, who was active in gardening and historical groups, will be offered at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Roman Catholic Shrine of the Sacred Heart, 5800 Smith Ave., Mount Washington.

Mrs. Symington died Dec. 3 of emphysema at her home of 56 years in Riderwood. She was 81.

The former Katherine Slingluff was born in Baltimore and presented to society at the Bachelors Cotillon. She was a 1927 graduate of Mount St. Agnes High School, where she studied the piano. She continued her musical studies at the Peabody Conservatory until 1936.

She had been president of the Roslyn Garden Club and was a supporter of the Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage. In 1951, she was vice chairman of the National Flower Show in Baltimore. Her own garden featured perennials native to England.

Mrs. Symington had served as a vice president of the Maryland Historical Society and had chaired its Women's Committee. She was a member of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Maryland, the Hampton Women's Committee, the Society for the Preservation of Maryland Antiquities, the Maryland Historical Trust and the Catholic Evidence League.

She enjoyed playing golf at the Elkridge Club.

Her husband, William Wallace Symington Jr., a retired aeronautical engineer, died in 1984.

She is survived by two daughters, Lee Symington Mathews of Riderwood and Katherine Symington Seiler of Monkton; a brother, Robert Lee Slingluff of New Windsor; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. William A. Imbach Jr., a dentist who practiced in Catonsville for more than 50 years, died of a stroke Dec. 14 at the Meridian Nursing Home in Catonsville after a monthlong illness. He was 79.

Born in Baltimore, he graduated from City College and the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in 1934 and began practicing in Ten Hills.

He later moved his office to Frederick Avenue and Ingleside Road, where he remained until he retired in 1985. His patients included an archbishop of Maryland and William Donald Schaefer when he was mayor of Baltimore.

Dr. Imbach, who married Cass Cusack of Catonsville in 1938, was known informally as the mayor of Catonsville, according to a daughter, Debbie Foltz. An avid golfer who had a 3 handicap at one time, he often played at the Rolling Road Country Club in Catonsville.

He belonged to the Maryland State Dental Association, the Baltimore City Dentistry Society and the Xi Psi Phi dental fraternity.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons, William A. Imbach III of Norfolk, Mass., Thomas E. Imbach of Little Silver, N.J., and Richard M. Imbach of Ellicott City; two daughters, Catherine Ward of Ellicott City and Ms. Foltz of Reisterstown; and 10 grandchildren.

Mass of Christian burial was offered Tuesday at the St. William of York Catholic Church.

William A. Chambers, Did home repairs

Services for William Alexander Chambers, a handyman who did home repairs for many years, will be held at 4:30 p.m. today at the Leroy O. Dyett and Son Funeral Home, 4600 Liberty Heights Ave.

Mr. Chambers, who was 79 and lived on Pennsylvania Avenue, died Monday at the Fort Howard Veterans Hospital after a stroke.

A native of Annapolis, Mr. Chambers was reared in Baltimore and educated in the city public schools. He served in the Navy during World War II.

He is survived by his wife, the former Alice Grawham of Philadelphia; two sons, Herbert and William Alexander Chambers both of Baltimore; a sister, Doris Tolson of Baltimore; and three grandchildren.

Phyllis C. H. Mason, Wrote of Canal Zone

Phyllis Clair Hagberg Mason, who spent more than 20 years chronicling her family's experiences in the Panama Canal Zone, died of kidney failure Nov. 22, in Reston, Va.

Mrs. Mason, who was 69, had been ill for six years.

Born in Montclair, N.J., she grew up in the Mount Washington area of Baltimore and graduated from Western High School.

She attended Syracuse University, New York University, Utah State University and Canal Zone College. During World War II, she served in the U.S. Navy in Washington.

In the early 1970s, she lived in the Canal Zone with her husband, Irvin H. Mason, a civil engineer who worked for the U.S. government. Later, she began working on a book titled "The Feasors," which is said to contain allegations of corruption among U.S. officials there. The book has not yet been published.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by two sons; Eric A. Mason of Boulder, Colo., and Scott H. Mason of Lyons, Colo.; a daughter, Lark M. Brownell of Bluemont, Va.; a brother, Bernard L. Hagberg Jr. of Pasadena; and four grandchildren.

Services are private.

Rose Abrams Kandel, Owned loan office

Rose Abrams Kandel, for many years the owner with her husband of a Pennsylvania Avenue loan office and pawn shop, died of cancer yesterday at Sinai Hospital at the age of 87.

Born in 1904, the year of the great Baltimore Fire, Mrs. Kandel lived in and was devoted to the city all of her life.

"She was a very committed Baltimorean," said Mrs. Kandel's daughter, Ferne Kandel Kolodner of Baltimore.

Mrs. Kandel was a graduate of Western High School and Strayer Business College. She was married in the early 1920s to Nathan Kandel, and the couple jointly owned and operated their business on Pennsylvania Avenue in the 1940s. After Mr. Kandel died in 1950, his wife continued to run the business for several years.

She was a board member and volunteer for many years with the Levindale Ladies Auxiliary and what is now the League for the Handicapped; a member of Har Sinai Congregation and its sisterhood; and a life member of Hadassah, B'Nai B'rith and the National Council of Jewish Women.

Surviving, in addition to Mrs. Kandel's daughter, are a son, Nelson R. Kandel of Baltimore; three sisters, Bertha Coplan and Doris Levin, both of Baltimore, and Vera Rosenbaum of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral establishment, 6010 Reisterstown Road.

The family suggested memorial contributions to Gay Men's Health Crisis Inc., 129 W. 20th St., New York, N.Y. 10011, which was formerly headed by Nathan Kandel Kolodner, a grandson who died of AIDS; or to the Nathan K. Kolodner Art Scholarship Fund at Friends School, 5700 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21210. Services for Thomas Donald Poe, an assistant fire chief for Bethlehem Steel Corp. at Sparrows Point in the 1960s, will be held tomorrow at the Anderson Funeral Home in Lehigh Acres, Fla.

Mr. Poe died Dec. 17 at Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center in Fort Myers, Fla., after a severe stroke. He was 73.

He worked as a firefighter at Bethlehem Steel for 35 years and was named assistant fire chief in 1958. Ten years later, he was promoted to the rank of chief and transferred to the Burns Harbor, Ind., plant. He retired there in 1976, and moved to Lehigh Acres.

Mr. Poe was born in Reisterstown, where he lived for 30 years. He attended Franklin High School and served in the Navy during World War II.

He was a life member of the Patapsco Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons in Dundalk, past president of the board of trustees of Christ United Methodist Church in Lehigh Acres and an avid golfer. He worked part time for 10 years at the Farley Funeral Home in Lehigh Acres.

His brother, Marvin Poe of Owings Mills, died in September.

Mr. Poe is survived by his wife of 47 years, the former Alyce K. Winters of Lehigh Acres; two daughters, A. Darlene Stone of Lehigh Acres and Beverly Jean Bryant of Northeast; a sister, Ann Brose of Taneytown; and four grandchildren.

The family suggested memorial contributions to Christ United Methodist Church, Homestead Road and Lee Boulevard, Lehigh Acres, Fla., 33936.

William N. Spence, Food sales executive

A Mass of Christian burial for William Nelson Spence, a retired food sales executive, will be offered at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Corpus Christi Church at Mount Royal and Lafayette avenues.

Mr. Spence died of cancer Friday at his home in Catonsville's Woodbridge Valley area. He was 68.

He worked for more than 40 years at a number of food sales companies in Baltimore and Washington, beginning at Good Brothers in Baltimore in 1945. In 1976, he founded S&S; Marketing Inc., a food brokerage company in Baltimore, and served as its president for seven years before selling the company in 1983.

He retired in April from SMI Corp. in Beltsville.

Mr. Spence, a Baltimore native, attended Calvert Hall College.

During World War II, he served in the Marines from 1942 to 1945 as a private first class and fought with the 1st Marine Battalion at Guadalcanal.

Mr. Spence is survived by his wife of 44 years, the former Katherine L. Gallion of Woodbridge Valley; four daughters, Christine Weitzel of Ellicott City and Susan Spence, Karen Spence Parente and Denise Spence, all of Baltimore; two sons, Stephen and Mark Spence, both of Ellicott City; nine grandchildren; and two sisters, Anne Kaulfuss and Mary Waters, both of Baltimore.

The family suggests memorial contributions to the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center Development Office for the colon cancer research of Dr. Bert Vogelstein, 550 N. Broadway, Suite 801, Baltimore, Md., 21205, or the St. Agnes Hospital Home Care/Hospice Program, 900 Caton Ave., Baltimore, Md., 21229.

Earl W. Roberts, Electrician

Graveside services for Earl W. Roberts, a retired telephone company electrician, will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Meadow Branch Church of the Brethren cemetery in Westminster. His grandson, the Rev. Earl W. Roberts III, will be one of three ministers officiating.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Jan. 4 at the Brethren Home Meeting House in New Oxford, Pa.

Mr. Roberts died Friday at the Hanover (Pa.) General Hospital of a perforated ulcer. He was 89.

He worked as an electrician and supervisor at Western Electric Co. off Broening Highway at Point Breeze for about 45 years. He retired in 1964.

Mr. Roberts was a member of the Telephone Pioneers of AT&T; Co. and the First Church of the Brethren in York, Pa.

He attended night classes at Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Roberts was born in Sparrows Point. He lived at Cross Keys Village, a retirement home in New Oxford.

He is survived by his wife of 22 years, the former Ruth Yingling; two sons, Earl W. Roberts Jr. of Barrington, N.J., and Richard J. Roberts of Baltimore; a brother, Ernest A. Roberts of Sparks; a sister, Lydia Booze of Baltimore; four grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

The family suggested memorial contributions to the Good Samaritan Fund at the Brethren Home, 2990 Carlisle Pike, New Oxford, Pa., 17350.

VTC

LaVerne M. Smart, Machine operator

Services for LaVerne M. Smart, a retired machine operator who lived in Baltimore for many years, will be held tomorrow at the Dalla Valle Funeral Home in Everett, Pa.

Mrs. Smart, 82, died Thursday in Spokane, Wash., where she was visiting her sister, Marie Stalcup.

Born in Bedford County, Pa., Mrs. Smart moved to Baltimore as a young woman. She worked as a special machine operator for the Wohlmuth Co. here.

Five years ago, she moved back to Everett, the town where she grew up. She was a member of the Everett First United Church of Christ and the Everett Happy Senior Citizens, a social group. She also belonged to the Pythian Sisters in Baltimore and the Maryland Hobby Club. She was past president of the Women of the Moose club in Baltimore.

Her husband, Ross Smart, died in 1988.

.' She is survived by her sister.

Gilbert C. Fisher, Retired printer

Services for Gilbert Conrad Fisher, a retired printer and lithography teacher, will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Arnolia United Methodist Church.

Mr. Fisher died Friday in his sleep of heart failure at his Baltimore home. He was 78.

Since 1976, he had worked with his son, Gordon A. Fisher, at Mercury Press Inc. in Hanover, Pa. The elder Mr. Fisher was vice president of production.

He also had worked at Offset Lithography and taught photo lithography at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School before 1967. He established print shops at Sinai, Union Memorial and Maryland General hospitals and supervised the shop at Sinai until 1973. He also worked as a production supervisor at Jeffrey Press.

A native of Manassas, Va., Mr. Fisher was a member and head usher at Arnolia United Methodist Church and past president of the United Methodist men's group there.

Active in Masonic affairs, he was past master of the Mount Moriah Lodge No. 116 of the Free and Accepted Masons and past worthy patron of Towson Chapter Eastern Star No. 70.

Mr. Fisher is survived by his wife, the former Lois Pfeifer o Baltimore, and a son, Gordon A. Fisher of Hanover. Also surviving are five daughters, Delores Gowl, Deanna Barnes, Joan Walstrum, Ruth Duerbeck and Deborah Singer; a stepson, C. Michael Pfeifer Jr.; a stepdaughter, Shirley Pollhein, all of Baltimore; 17 grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

The family suggested memorial contributions to Arnolia United Methodist Church, 1776 E. Joppa Road, Baltimore, Md., 21234.