E. Louise Barisis
Retired saleswoman
E. Louise Wilhelm Barisis, a department store saleswoman for many years, died Wednesday of cancer at her Easton home. She was 77.
Before retiring in 1981, she worked 35 years for Montgomery Ward, beginning her career at the company's old Monroe Street store in Baltimore. She transferred in 1975 to a store in St. Petersburg, Fla., and volunteered at a senior citizens center in Hudson, Fla. She moved to Easton in the early 1980s.
Born in Hampstead, she moved to Baltimore as a child and attended city schools. She was a member of the auxiliary of the Loyal Order of the Moose and enjoyed fishing, crabbing and watching Orioles and Colts games.
Her two marriages ended in divorce.
She is survived by a son, William S. Rice of Charlottesville, Va.; two daughters, Mary Louise Duicus of Stevensville and Cherie Greenfield of Martinsburg, W.Va.; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
The family suggested memorial donations to the Talbot Hospice Foundation, 100 S. Hanson St., Easton 21601.
Services were held Friday.
M. King Drinkwater
Retired sales manager
M. King Drinkwater, a retired sales manager who enjoyed playing sports, died July 17 of cancer at his home in Timonium. He was 82.
He retired in 1976 from C. R. Daniels Inc. in Ellicott City as sales manager of the company's conveyor belting division. From 1977, until he retired a second time in 1984, he was associated with the Baltimore Belting Co. Inc. on 25th Street.
Earlier, he had worked for Texaco Inc. from 1938 to 1957 as a service station supervisor, managing stations in Virginia and Maryland.
He was born and reared in Baltimore and was a 1929 graduate of City College, where he played football and was captain of the baseball team. He was active in the Class of 1929 Alumni Association, which in 1986 awarded him its award for outstanding achievement in sports.
During World War II, he served in naval intelligence as a cryptographic analyst in Australia and Guam.
A sports enthusiast, he played badminton for 40 years with the Maryland Badminton Association and won many trophies. He was also an avid golfer and played tennis until he was 80. For many years, he was a member of a men's volleyball group that met and played regularly at the Valley Country Club in Riderwood.
He was a volunteer baseball and football coach and referee for the Lutherville-Timonium Recreation Council and the Timonium Optimist Club. He also enjoyed planting spring flowers, mainly tulips.
He is survived by his wife of 45 years, the former Elizabeth "Betty" Gorman; three sons, Jeffrey K. Drinkwater of White Hall, Glenn G. Drinkwater of Rochester, N.Y., and Bruce A. Drinkwater of Charlotte, N.C.; and six grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be made to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center Foundation, Hospice of Baltimore, 6701 N. Charles St., Towson 21204.
Graveside services were held July 21 at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens.
Judson H. Kerr Sr.
Real estate broker
Judson H. Kerr Sr., a former real estate broker, tax consultant and owner of a patent medicine store, died Friday at his West Baltimore home after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 69.
He began Kerr's Patent Medicine Store after attending pharmacy school at Howard University -- the same school attended by his father, the late T. Henderson Kerr Sr., who owned Kerr's Drug Store at Myrtle Avenue and George Street in West Baltimore.
Judson Kerr's store was located nearby, at the corner of Fremont and Lafayette avenues, where he developed a close relationship with the neighborhood over a period of four decades, said his wife of 39 years, the former Delores Parker.
"His job was his fun, and his fun was his job," Mrs. Kerr said. "A lot of people looked up to him in the neighborhood. Many of his customers were his friends and he really cared about them."
In 1958, he switched careers and became a real estate broker and tax consultant. He stopped the tax portion of the business in 1983, and in 1986, he and his wife became partners in the property management endeavor.
Until his later years, when he began having some vision problems due to glaucoma, Mr. Kerr was an avid reader of the city's daily newspapers.
"He read the newspaper from cover to cover. He knew everything in the world, from politics to sports," his wife said. "People would come in the store and he enjoyed discussing things in the paper with them."
Mr. Kerr also liked to play pinochle, enjoyed traveling with his wife in the Caribbean during the winter and watching boxing, baseball, football and basketball. Many years ago he coached a son's neighborhood basketball team.
He was a member of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church for most of his life, and briefly a member of Heritage United Church of Christ.
Surviving, in addition to his wife, are four sons, Judson Kerr Jr. of Randallstown, James Kerr of Columbia, Jerald Kerr of Baltimore and David Kerr of Yeadon, Pa.; a daughter, Jessie L. Lawrence of Baltimore; a sister, Louise K. Hines of Baltimore; 12 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Services were to be held at noon today at Sharp Street Memorial, Dolphin and Etting streets.
Howard H. Bradley, a retired salesman for a wholesale florist in Easton, died Monday of cancer at Easton Memorial Hospital. ** The Hurlock resident was 68.
Mr. Bradley retired last year from Murdoch Gardens, where he had worked for more than 25 years. Before moving to Hurlock in 1965, he lived in Pasadena and earlier in East Baltimore, where he was raised.
His past jobs included a position at Harris Motor Freight in Baltimore and work as a ceramic-tile setter, also in the city.
His wife of 33 years, the former Peggy S. Flegel, described him as "a multifaceted person" who had a feel for decorating and aesthetics that he applied to their house. "He loved working with his hands," she said.
Mrs. Bradley, who accompanied her husband to many antique car shows, said he enjoyed looking at the old vehicles because it "would bring back memories of when he was a kid in Baltimore."
Mr. Bradley was a Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War and was in the Reserve for several years after his discharge from active duty in 1946. He was a member of the Disabled Veterans of America and Unity-Washington United Methodist Church in Hurlock, where he served on the administrative board.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Bradley is survived by a son, Michael S. Bradley of Hurlock; a daughter, M. Christine Malaspina of Medford Lakes, N.J.; two stepsisters, Mary Schmitt and Edith Supik, both of Baltimore; two stepbrothers, Russell and Willie Mitchell, both of Baltimore; and several nieces and nephews.
Services were held Saturday in Federalsburg. The family suggested donations to the American Cancer Society, 1138 Parsons Road, Salisbury 21801.
Pietro 'Pete' Liberto
Retired barber
Pietro "Pete" Liberto, who became a barber when he was 12 years old to help to support his family and worked at that trade for the next seven decades, died in his sleep Sunday at his Catonsville home. He was 94.
Mr. Liberto operated Liberto's Barber Shop at 15 Eutaw Place, between Baltimore and Fayette streets, which he had bought in 1929. He sold the shop and retired at the age of 85.
He was known as "the candy man" because of his regular practice of reaching into his pocket to give small pieces of imported Italian candies to friends and customers of the shop, his brother, Sam Liberto, said.
As a child during a trip to his parents' homeland in Sicily, Mr. Liberto learned the craft of cutting hair from his godfather in Cefalu, Sam Liberto said. After that, he returned to the United States, completed his formal education in elementary school at School No. 1 at Greene and Fayette streets and began to work as a barber.
"He was always a barber, that's the only thing he knew," the brother said.
Mr. Liberto raised figs on two trees, first when he lived downtown on Greene Street, and in Catonsville, where he lived for the last 42 years with his brother, Sam, and sister-in-law, Caterina Liberto. He held steadfast to a daily practice of attending Mass.
He was widowed in 1933 after his wife of six years, Christina
Lanasa Liberto, died at the age of 27. The couple had no children, and Mr. Liberto never remarried.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 9 a.m. tomorrow at St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church, on U.S. 40 at St. Agnes Lane in Catonsville.
Mr. Liberto is survived by four of his seven siblings: brothers John, Sam and Tom Liberto, and a sister, Sadie D'Adamo, all of the Baltimore area.