Blanche McCleary
Longtime teacher
Blanche Person Anderson McCleary, who retired in 1975 as director of girls' athletics at the Calvert School, where she had worked since 1952, died Wednesday of cancer at her Kernewood residence. The former Roland Park resident was 75.
She was born into a farming family in Montgomery City, Mo. After earning her bachelor's degree in 1940 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she moved to Baltimore. She and John William McCleary, now retired as a Towson State University history professor and tennis coach, were married in 1942.
Mrs. McCleary won several Maryland Senior Olympics medals in tennis and was a member of the Homeland Racquet Club and the Women's Board of Children's Hospital, where she was a volunteer.
A memorial service was held yesterday at Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Charles and Saratoga streets, where she was a longtime member.
In addition to her husband, survivors include a son, John S. McCleary of Ruxton; three daughters, Jane McC. Saral of Atlanta, Katherine McCleary of Palo Alto, Calif., and Elizabeth Primrose-Smith of Los Angeles; two brothers, John Anderson of Savannah, Ga., and Samuel Anderson of Greensboro; three sisters, Cornelia Garrard of Rougemont, N.C., Mary Chambers of Kingsport, Tenn., and Caroline Tarbet of Lutherville; and eight grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be made to Union Memorial Hospice, 201 E. University Parkway, Baltimore 21218.
Edna M. Shelton Darago, a retired department store sales associate, died Wednesday of respiratory failure at Union Memorial Hospital. She was 87.
She worked in Hutzler's Bros. department store on Howard Street from 1959 until she retired in 1971. Earlier, she did clerical work after moving to Baltimore in the mid-1920s from the Eastern Shore.
The daughter of a Chesapeake Bay waterman, she was reared and educated in Princess Anne. After her marriage to Daniel D. Darago, the couple settled in Charles Village. Mr. Darago, who operated Darago Transportation, a trucking firm, died in 1956.
She enjoyed traveling by steamship to Europe and after her retirement traveled extensively throughout the United States.
She enjoyed attending Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concerts and visiting the Baltimore Museum of Art and listening to lectures at the Johns Hopkins University.
She was a communicant of SS. Philip and James Roman Catholic Church for many years.
Services are set for 11 a.m. tomorrow at Henry W. Jenkins & Sons, 4905 York Road, Baltimore.
Mrs. Darago is survived by her daughter, Mary M. Darago of Baltimore; and two sisters, Lilly Freyman of Baltimore, and Hilda Walston of Somerset County. Another daughter, Lillian L. Darago, died in 1988.
Francis Weiskittel
Worked in real estate
Francis A. Weiskittel, who was still working at age 96 for Arthur D. Fulton Real Estate Co., died Dec. 9 of intestinal ischemia at Blakehurst, the West Joppa Road retirement community.
Earlier in life, he had worked for A. Weiskittel & Sons, a Fells Point foundry that closed in 1939. During World War II, he served with the Army Air Corps chemical warfare division and was discharged with the rank of captain in 1946. He served as an Air Force reservist until 1957.
Born and reared in Baltimore, he was the next-to-last surviving member of Polytechnic Institute's class of 1916. He earned his bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1919.
He and the former Mary Elizabeth Ford, who died in 1957, were married in 1945.
Survivors include two sons, Sturtevant E. Weiskittel, of Geneva, N.Y., and Anton C. Weiskittel of Towson; a sister, Dorothy C. Weiskittel, of Baltimore; and four grandchildren.
Graveside services were held Thursday at Druid Ridge Cemetery.
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Keith R. Hogan
Truck driver
Keith R. Hogan, a former truck driver who operated a painting business in the early 1980s, died Tuesday of complications from pneumonia at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg, W.Va. He was 60.
The Pennsylvania native came to Baltimore when he was a teen-ager and lived in Dundalk until he moved to the Medical Center eight years ago. Earlier in his career, he had been a taxi and bus driver.
Mr. Hogan also had served briefly in the Korean conflict before being given a medical discharge from the Army.
He liked tennis and camping at the beach, said his son, Ronald L. Hogan of Edgewood.
In addition to his son, survivors include three other sons, Brian K. Hogan of Severn, Dean C. Hogan of Edgemere and Paris K. Hogan of Overlea; a daughter, Michele R. Graza of Chicago; two sisters, Sylvia A. Byron of Ocean City and Lavawn Santini of Warwick, R.I.; three half-brothers, John, Jeffrey and Jerry Hogan, all of Dallas; and six grandchildren. He also is survived by two former wives, Wilburta Elswick of Terra Alta, W.Va., and Janet Musser Hogan of Dundalk.
Private family services will be held today in Edgewood.
Ellen M. Luff, 52, an Annapolis lawyer with a special interest in equal rights for women, died Nov. 22 of cancer in Fort Bragg, Calif., where she had lived since she became ill last year. She was a former legislative liaison for the Maryland Commission on the Aging, one of the first married women to use her maiden name on a driver's license and voter registration, a former technical writer and a worker for a community action agency. She graduated from Arundel High School in Gambrills, St. John's College in Annapolis and from the University of Baltimore law school in 1969. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Unitarian Church of Anne Arundel County, 333 Dubois Road in Annapolis. Her marriage to the late Eric Dennard ended in divorce. She is survived by a stepdaughter, Nicole Dennard of Los Angeles; a brother, Willard Luff of Titusville, Fla.; a sister, Pat Maynard of Robindale, Mich.; and several nieces and nephews.
Ruby M. Blake, 79, a Severn homemaker, died Dec. 11 of complications from a stroke at Meridian Nursing Center in Severna Park. The West Virginia native was 79 and had lived in the Severn area for the past 16 years.
Her husband, Jesse W. Blake, died in 1978. The former Ruby West is survived by four daughters, Joyce M. Seaver of Parkville, Fonda L. Fetzer of Clinton, Betty J. Borlie of Rosedale and Peggy A. Schwartz of Severn; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Services were held Thursday in Flatwoods, W.Va.
Lester C. McCrea, 52, retired executive assistant to the Baltimore school board who began his career as a social studies teacher in 1964, died of cancer at his West Baltimore home on Dec. 7. He was a Baltimore native, a City College and Morgan State University graduate, and a founder and former president of the graduate chapter of Alpha Phi Omega fraternity.
Survivors include his wife, the former Rowena Smith; three sons, Lester McCrea III, Lawrence McCrea and Bryon McCrea; his parents, Laura Sneed and Lester McCrea; and a granddaughter, all of Baltimore. Services were held Dec. 10.
Eva C. Smith, 89, a homemaker and longtime Hampden resident, died of pneumonia last Sundayin Newark, Del., where she had lived since 1980. The former Eva Johnson, a 1923 graduate of Eastern High School, worked briefly in the 1930s as a secretary for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. She was an honored queen of Job's Daughters and a former member of the Order of the Eastern Star.
Services will be held at noon tomorrow at Ogletown Baptist Church in Newark, where she was a member.
Survivors include a daughter, Dorothy C. Dewberry of Newark, Del.;. a son, Joseph W. Smith Jr. of Richmond, Va.; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandsons. Joseph W. Smith Sr., her husband of 52 years, died in 1986.