Elizabeth Geier
Left Romania in 1925
Elizabeth Geier, whose arrival in Baltimore in 1925 as a teen-ager in the native dress of Romania was celebrated in newspaper accounts of the time, died Saturday after suffering a stroke at the Bon Secours nursing home in Ellicott City. She was 85.
A longtime resident of Arbutus, the former Elizabeth Klein Popowitz had lived at the Heartlands Retirement Community, next to the nursing home, since 1990.
Between 1949 and 1965, she was the proprietor of Ashton Cleaners on South Smallwood Street in Southwest Baltimore.
Born in Philadelphia, she returned at the age of 2 with her parents to live at the family's home in the Balkan town of Santandrei. As a U.S. citizen, she came to Baltimore 13 years later to live with an aunt, and newspaper reporters met her at the railroad station.
"In the frock of a Rumanian peasant," one of them wrote, "a little girl with blue eyes, pink cheeks and golden hair hanging in long braids from beneath a quaint bonnet arrived yesterday at Union Station." She had made the trip across the Atlantic alone.
"In Elizabeth's soul," the reporter observed, "swelled the great ambition to be an American girl -- in spirit and appearance as well as by birth. As soon as possible, she plans to be a flapper, bobbed of hair and modish in dress."
In Baltimore, she met and married Peter Jacob Geier. His family ** lived in the Balkan town of Yarmacht, not far from the one she had left. Before his death in 1974, the couple traveled frequently to both ancestral homes.
A Mass of Christian burial was to be offered at 10:30 a.m. today at the Roman Catholic Church of the Ascension, Potomac at Poplar avenues, Halethorpe.
She is survived by a son, Nicholas P. Geier of Ellicott City; four grandsons; three granddaughters; six great-grandsons; and six great-granddaughters.
Memorial donations may be made to Grant A Wish Foundation, P.O. Box 21211, Baltimore 21228.
Rev. Neil J. O'Donnell
Our Lady of Grace pastor
The Rev. Neil J. O'Donnell, pastor of Our Lady of Grace Roman Catholic Church at Parkton since 1983 and former director of pastoral care at St. Agnes Hospital, died at the hospital Saturday after a heart attack. He was 68.
Father O'Donnell had collapsed the day before outside St. Mark's Church in Catonsville after conducting the funeral of a friend, who had been a doctor at St. Agnes.
Born in Bayonne, N.J., he was ordained in 1953 as a member of the Passionist religious order. After work in various parishes and as a retreat master, he began his ministry at St. Agnes in 1965. Six years later, Cardinal Lawrence Shehan appointed him to a new health affairs post in the Baltimore Archdiocese, in which he took charge of training chaplains and health-care ministers. One of his duties was to represent the archdiocese in the Maryland Conference of Catholic Hospitals.
Father O'Donnell helped develop hospice training programs for volunteers and assisted Mount Calvary Episcopal Church in the establishment of the Joseph Richey Hospice on Eutaw Street. He had completed postgraduate studies in the field of health care at Catholic University of America and at Cornell University's Sloan Institute of Hospital Administration.
Although remaining close to the work of the Passionist order, he became an archdiocesan priest under Archbishop William D. Borders in 1982. Parish work was added to his duties as health affairs coordinator and he lived at the Monsignor Clare J. O'Dwyer Youth Retreat House in Sparks.
The following year, he succeeded Monsignor Edward Lynch, founding pastor at Our Lady of Grace, where a funeral Mass will be offered at 10:30 a.m. today.
Survivors include a sister, Mary T. O'Donnell, and a brother, William P. O'Donnell, both of Cherry Hill, N.J.
Memorial donations may be made to Our Lady of Grace Church, P.O. Box 360, 18310 Middletown Road, Parkton 21120.
Rose Mary Badart
Preservationist
Rose Mary Badart, a resident for more than 70 years of the Lawyers Hill section of Howard County and an ardent preservationist there, died of congestive heart failure Monday at her home on Old Lawyer's Hill Road, Elkridge. She was 92.
Mrs. Badart, widow of Leo C. Badart, became active after his death in 1964 in a family medical-services business, Medical-Dental Exchange Inc. At the time, it had offices in Baltimore. Now, it is located in Annapolis, owned and managed by a son, A. Nicholas Badart.
Born in East Baltimore, she was married in 1922 at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church on South Broadway. Soon thereafter, she and her husband moved to the frame gatehouse of the "Faerie Knowe" estate of John H. B. Latrobe, one of the three Baltimore lawyers who built large country houses on Lawyers Hill in the early part of the last century and gave the community its name. The gatehouse burned in the 1930s and was rebuilt by the Badarts in brick.
Mrs. Badart was long known for the number and variety of her pets, which included two geese, Clem and Clementine, and a loyal watchdog, Andrew. She was a prolific painter of landscapes and in the 1950s and 1960s was active in Lawyers Hill arts groups.
She was also active for many years in the Howard Chapter 101 of the Order of the Eastern Star.
Services were set for 11 a.m. today at the Gary L. Kaufman Funeral Home, 5695 Main St., Elkridge.
Survivors include her sons, Nichlas Badart of Annapolis and Leo C. Badart of Baltimore; two brothers, Norman and Wilbur Roppelt, and a sister, Thelma Roppelt, all of Baltimore; and a grandson.
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Joyce L. Drega
Former Baltimorean
Joyce L. Drega, a homemaker and former Baltimorean, died Tuesday at her home in Staunton, Va., of a respiratory illness. She was 60.
Mrs. Drega, who was born in Staunton but grew up in Baltimore, worked briefly as a substitute teacher in Baltimore County in the 1960s.
In 1960, she married Raymond J. Drega and in 1979 they moved to Staunton with their two children.
A graveside service was set for today at the West Augusta (Va.) Cemetery.
Survivors include her husband, a son, Joseph Drega, and a daughter, Rebecca Williams, all of Staunton; a sister, Shelva Bright of Baltimore; and three grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be made to the University of Virginia Medical Center, Jefferson Park Ave., Charlottesville, Va. 22908; or to the American Lung Association of Virginia/Northwest Area, 39 South Gate Court, Suite 102, Harrisonburg, Va. 22801.
Robert C. Kinser Sr.
Beth Steel worker
Robert C. Kinser Sr., a Cumberland native who retired as a production worker at Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Sparrows Point plant nine years ago and moved to Wesley Chapel, Fla., died after a stroke Saturday in a Tampa, Fla., hospital. He was 69.
A member of United Steelworkers of America Local 2609 and a Navy veteran of World War II, he was a life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6696 in Dundalk.
Services were set for today in Florida. Survivors include his wife, the former Maryland L. Dorsey; three sons, Robert C. Kinser Jr. of Kingsville, David W. Kinser of Dundalk and Barry Kinser of Tampa; his mother, Katherine Campbell Kinser, and a brother, Kenneth R. Kinser, both of Cumberland; and nine grandchildren.
D. A. Higgins-Garrish
Homemaker, 38
Deborah A. Higgins-Garrish, a homemaker, of Colora, Cecil County, died Dec. 26 of a hemorrhage at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was 38.
Services will be at 11 a.m. today at the R. T. Foard Funeral Home in Rising Sun.
She is survived by her husband Terry L. Garrish, a daughter, Brandy L. Higgins, and two sons, Jeffery L. Higgins and Terry Garrish Jr., all of Colora; her parents, Ralph Houseright of Phoenix, Ariz., and Betty Burke of Kingsport, Tenn.; three sisters, Tammy Bowman and Sherry Hughes of Church Hill, Tenn., and Susan Houseright of Reisterstown; four brothers, Ralph Houseright Jr. and Jamie Linkous of Kingsport, Gerald Linkous of Church Hill and Paul Houseright of Phoenix; and her maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Neely of Church Hill.
Theresa Acquaviva Rizzo, 73, of Maysville, Ga., died Sunday in Commerce, Ga., after a brief illness.
Services were scheduled for today in Commerce. Survivors include her husband, Charles Peter Rizzo; two daughters, Rosetta "Terri" Rizzo and Gina Marie Rizzo, both of Baltimore; a ++ son, Charles Anthony Rizzo of Succasunna, N.J.; and a brother, Mario Acquaviva of Clearwater, Fla.