Hervey G. Machen
Former congressman
Hervey G. Machen, who served in the Maryland House of Delegates for 10 years and in Congress for four, died Tuesday of cancer at his home in Annapolis. He was 78.
He had lived in Prince George's County and practiced law in Hyattsville until his retirement about 10 years ago. He represented the county in the Maryland House from 1955 until 1964. In 1964 he was elected to House of Representatives from the old 5th Congressional District.
He served on the Armed Forces Committee while in Congress, and continued to support the protection of the Chesapeake Bay and especially the Patuxent and Potomac rivers, work in which he had been active since early in his tenure in the Maryland House. He recently had received a citation for this work from the National Capital Parks and Planning Commission.
Born in Washington, he was a graduate of Hyattsville High School, attended the University of Maryland and graduated from the Southeastern University law school. He began practicing law in 1940 and interrupted his career to serve as an Army officer during World War II.
He was an assistant state's attorney in Prince George's from 1947 until 1951, city attorney for Cheverly and Hyattsville from 1949 until 1958 and vice chairman of the state Democratic Central Committee in the mid-1950s.
Services were set for 10 a.m. today at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Hyattsville.
He is survived by his wife, the former Marian Davis; two sons, William Lee Machen of New Carrollton and Hervey G. Machen III of Croom; two daughters, Susan Gill of Potomac and Judith Amanda Machen of Hyattsville; a sister, Theo Peterson of Island Creek; 10 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
Hamilton W. Rouse, whose boyhood love of trains led to a professional railroading career, died Tuesday of progressive supranuclear palsy, a severe form of Parkinson's disease. He was 77.
He started as a locomotive fireman for the Western Maryland Railway in 1936 and retired in 1976 as superintendent of the carrier's Port Covington yard and terminal.
"He loved it -- railroading was his whole life," said his son, Dennis H. Rouse of Arbutus. "From the time he was a child, all he wanted to be was a railroadman."
Mr. Rouse collected railroad lanterns, timetables and other rail memorabilia. His photographic collection of locomotives, cars and stations from around the world totaled over 750,000 pictures, according to the son.
He was reared in Baltimore and was a 1936 graduate of the Polytechnic Institute.
Services were set for noon today at the Hubbard Funeral Home, 4107 Wilkens Ave., Baltimore.
Other survivors include his wife of 55 years, the former Agnes McCauley; a daughter, Dorothy L. Sell of Arbutus; and two grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be made to the Society for the Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Research, 3737 Courtleigh Drive, Randallstown 21133, or the Western Maryland Railway Historical Society, P.O. Box 395, 41 N. Main St., Union Bridge 21791.
Clara Lorine Knight
Nurse
Clara Lorine Knight, a retired licensed practical nurse, died Sunday at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center of injuries she suffered in an automobile accident earlier that day at Belvedere Avenue and The Alameda. The Northeast Baltimore resident was 68.
She retired about 15 years ago after working at the old U.S. Public Health Service Hospital, Sinai Hospital and University Hospital.
The former Clara Lorine Wilkins was a native of Littleton, N.C., who came to Baltimore as a young woman. She was a graduate of the practical nursing school at Henryton State Hospital.
Services were set for 7:30 p.m. today at Homestead United Methodist Church, 1500 Gorsuch Ave., Baltimore.
She is survived by her husband, Joseph Lynwood Knight; two daughters, Carolyn Polk of Baltimore and Army Capt. Cassandra Denise Knight of Guam; two sons, Alonzo Melvin Gravely of Baltimore and Hiram Matthew Knight of Littleton; three brothers, Ulysses Wilkins and McKenley Wilkins Jr., both of Littleton, and Carl Wilkins of Baltimore; three sisters, Hattie W. Howard and Elaine W. Smallwood, both of Baltimore, and Mary Frances W. Fenner of Littleton; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Ethel Amelia Roop
Nurse, missionary
Ethel Amelia Roop, a retired nurse and missionary, died Sunday of cardiac arrest at the Westminster Nursing and Convalescent Center, where she had been a resident since 1979. She was 99.
After graduating from Western Maryland College in 1916, she taught elementary school for several years in Baltimore County before enrolling in the Battle Creek (Mich.) School of Nursing, earning her degree in the early 1920s.
In 1926, she was commissioned by the Church of the Brethren General Mission Board as a nurse and teacher and worked at the Brethren Mission at Dahanue Hospital near Bombay, India, until 1929 when she returned to Baltimore, working as a nurse until retiring in the late 1970s.
She is survived by a sister, Ruth Roop Roth of Westminster; three nephews, eight nieces and great-nephews and great-nieces.
Memorial donations may be made to the Meadow Branch Church of the Brethren, 818 Old Taneytown Road, Westminster 21158, where she was a member for 88 years, or the Reuel B. Pritchett Museum, c/o Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, Va. 22812, to which she had donated items collected during her travels in India.
Services were held yesterday.
Clarence G. Bell Sr.
Forklift operator
Clarence G. Bell Sr., a retired forklift operator at the General Motors Corp. plant in Baltimore, died Tuesday at Carroll County General Hospital after a series of strokes. The Finksburg resident was 71.
The native of Newburg, W.Va., retired in 1981 after working at the automobile plant for 31 years. He moved to Baltimore in the late 1940s and lived in the Canton area for many years.
Services were set for 1 p.m. today at the Thomas J. Skarda Funeral Home, 2829 Hudson St., Baltimore.
He is survived by his wife, the former Margaret Lee Harding; a daughter, Virginia Baker of Baltimore; three stepdaughters, Loretta Ludwig of Eldersburg, Carol Moreland of Finksburg and Georgia Reinhart of Hollidaysburg, Pa.; a sister, Thelma Spencer of Midway, Ohio; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Beatrice A. Avnet
Teacher, social worker
Beatrice A. Avnet, who had been a teacher, social worker and volunteer, died Tuesday at her Northwest Baltimore home of kidney failure. She was 85.
The former Beatrice A. Silverman taught in public and private schools in her native New York City before coming to Baltimore in 1936 after her marriage to I. Duke Avnet.
In addition to her husband, who is a retired lawyer, Mrs. Avnet's survivors include two sons, Richard Avnet of Columbia and Brian Avnet of Los Angeles; and a grandson.
Services will be private.