Rites tomorrow for 'Jim' Ainsley, air crash victim
Services for Harold John "Jim" Ainsley, a retired Baltimore County police lieutenant and former Parkville resident, will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Leonard J. Ruck funeral home, 5303 Harford Road in Hamilton.
Mr. Ainsley, who was 68, was killed Wednesday when his single-engine airplane crashed in dense fog in Lake Apopka in central Florida. He had been leaving his home in Winter Haven, Fla., to return to Ocean Pines for the summer. The accident happened as he was on his way to DeLand, Fla., to pick up a pilot.
His more than 25 years in the air qualified him as a member of Silver Wings, a private flying club.
His prized possession was his Navion, a 1947 single-engine plane considered the toughest plane ever built, said his half brother, Edward Wefelmeyer of Long Green.
Both brothers had been members of Navioneers, a club for fans of the classic planes.
"Every time he went somewhere, he took his airplane," said son-in-law Mark Beckwith of Bel Air. "He had suffered a couple of heart attacks, and every time he came bouncing back, and his first desire was to prove to the FAA he was flight-worthy."
Mr. Ainsley was known as Jim because he hated the name Harold, and his father's name was John, Mr. Beckwith said. Someone in the family started calling him Jim, and it stuck.
He was born in Baltimore and attended Polytechnic Institute. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943.
In the latter part of World War II, he served in the infantry and fought in the liberation of the Philippines, earning honors during the battles of Luzon and New Guinea. After the war, he remained in the Reserves until retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1983.
He held several jobs both before and during his 30 years as a Baltimore County police officer. A gregarious man, he was the type who couldn't go anywhere meeting someone he knew, Mr. Beckwith said.
"He was a tough veteran and a tough policeman who could be melted by a kid," Mr. Beckwith said. "He gave up his C-rations for children in New Guinea. He used to sing 'Daddy's Little Girl' to his daughters, and he could melt them in their tracks."
Mr. Ainsley was a member of the Mount Moriah Masonic Lodge, the Scottish Rite and Boumi Temple, Parkville American Legion Post 183 and Parkville VFW Post 9083.
Next month, he and his wife, the former Charlotte Kirchner, would have celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.
Other survivors include two daughters, Constance A. Beckwith and Beverly C. Horner, both of Bel Air; a son, John M. Ainsley of Parkville; his mother, Louise Wefelmeyer of Hamilton; and three grandchildren.
The family suggested memorial donations to the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, in care of Boumi Temple.
Ronald S. Smith
Episcopal pastor
Services for the Rev. Ronald Stanley Smith, 52, former pastor of Faith Reformed Episcopal Church in Armistead Gardens, will be held at 2 p.m. today at the Rivermont Presbyterian Church, 2424 Rivermont Ave., Lynchburg, Va.
Mr. Smith, who was raised in Woodlawn, died Friday at Lynchburg General Hospital as the result of a congenital heart defect.
Born in Baltimore, he was a 1958 graduate of Milford Mill High School in Randallstown.
Mr. Smith graduated from the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in 1967. In 1969, he returned to Baltimore to lead Faith Reformed Episcopal Church for 17 years.
He then went to Virginia to serve as pastor of the Providence Reformed Episcopal Church in New London for 4 1/2 years.
He is survived by his wife of 29 years, the former Patricia Weinreich; his father and stepmother, T. Stanley Smith and Doris W. Smith of Woodlawn; a son, Daniel S. Smith of Salem, Va.; a daughter, Jennifer S. Stearns of Lynchburg; and one granddaughter.
The family suggests contributions to the Bassinger Home Fund of the Reformed Episcopal Church, in care of Jon Abboud, 232 Wendover Drive, Havertown, Pa., 19083.
T. M. Ingram Sr.
Retired butcher
Services for Thalmos Marshall Ingram Sr., a retired butcher, will be held at 7 p.m. today at Shiloh Christian Community Church, 2500 W. Lombard St.
Mr. Ingram, 68, died Wednesday of lung cancer at his home in Irvington.
Born in Lancaster, S.C., Mr. Ingram moved to Baltimore as a child and was raised on East Biddle Street and later on Monroe Street. He was a graduate of Dunbar High School.
During World War II, he served with the Army in France.
After the war, he worked for several years for the Albert F. Goetze meat company. He then joined the Esskay Meat Co., where he worked as a butcher for 38 years. After his retirement in 1986, he held a part-time job as a mail carrier for Avis Rent-A-Car until last July, when he retired because of failing health.
In 1941 Mr. Ingram married the former Inez Hubbard, who died in 1954.
He is survived by his wife of 16 years, the former Hattie Dixon; five sons, Russell Ingram of Lochern and Thalmos Ingram Jr., Charles Ingram, the Rev. Eric Clanton and Dwight Clanton, all of Baltimore; a daughter, Amalia Miller of Baltimore; six stepchildren, Michael Dixon, Rodney Dixon, William Dixon, Terrence Dixon, Michelle Dixon and Tia Dixon, all of Irvington; a sister, Gladys Ingram of Baltimore; 15 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
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Alice G. Peirce
Real estate pioneer
Services for Alice G. Peirce, a retired real estate saleswoman, will be held at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow in the chapel of the Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St.
Mrs. Peirce, a Pinehurst resident for 45 years, died Friday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center after being hospitalized with an intestinal illness. She was 83.
She had been a partner for about 45 years in her husband's real estate business, Temple H. Peirce & Co. When she started in she was one of the first five female real estate agents in the area.
The former Alice G. Waldenberger was a 1927 graduate of Mount St. Agnes High School and a 1931 graduate of Mount St. Agnes College. Later, she attended McCoy College at the Johns Hopkins University. She studied accounting there and went on to become the second woman in Maryland to become a certified public accountant.
Mrs. Peirce was a former chairman of the Multiple Listing Service of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors, and she was the first woman to serve on the Baltimore Better Business Bureau's board of directors. She was also a 14-year volunteer at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and was active in the March of Dimes, the Heart Fund and the American Cancer Society.
Besides her husband, she is survived by a son, Temple H. Peirce Jr. of Pikesville; two daughters, Neilson P. Andrews of Rodgers Forge and Maryalice P. Hartshorn of Rhinebeck, N.Y.; and seven grandchildren.
The family suggests contributions to the Church of the Redeemer, Baltimore 21210, or the Corner Shop of the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, 6701 N. Charles St., Baltimore 21204.