Elizabeth K. Heuisler, a deeply religious woman who devoted her life to helping others and most recently organized a group in her retirement home to knit goods for the city's homeless, died Monday of lung cancer at her Roland Park Place home. She was 89.
For nearly 70 years, Mrs. Heuisler, who was known as Betty, was a selfless and indefatigable volunteer, pouring her energies into fund-raising and leadership roles in many civic activities, particularly those involving the Roman Catholic church.
"She was a remarkable woman and a born organizer," the Rev. Michael J. Roach, pastor of St. Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church in Manchester, said yesterday. "She was very faithful and had a great heart."
She had been active with Catholic Charities, the Christ Child Society, the Catholic Evidence League, Stella Maris Hospice, Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, the Mother's Club of the Baltimore Academy of the Visitation and Fresh Air, a children's camp.
For 50 years, she worked on the Women's Board of Children's Hospital and was director emeritus of the Mother Seton House, the Paca Street home of Elizabeth Bayley Seton, the first native North American saint who was canonized in 1975.
She was among the first volunteers who began restoration of Mother Seton's home in the 1960s.
During her final illness, she was given a religious relic, a bone fragment of Mother Seton's, that she kept on her bedside table, and which will be returned to the Mother Seton House.
"Her hands were rarely still," said her son Philip I. Heuisler III of Roland Park. "She remembered the women of her family gathering to knit woolies for the troops in World War I. She also made puppets for children, dyed Easter eggs for fund raising and folded literally tens of thousands of bandages for Children's Hospital."
Nancy Stanley, a friend for 30 years and coordinator of resident activities at Roland Park Place, said: "She was a person of tremendous faith that very few have in life. She lived her faith. Her generosity wasn't simply giving money, it was giving of herself."
"I think her activism reflected her Irish Catholic roots, and she always felt for the underdog," said a second son, J. Stanley Heuisler II of Roland Park.
For the past several years, Mrs. Heuisler organized 40 women at Roland Park Place, where she had lived since 1990, to collect wool and knit scarves, hats and gloves for the homeless.
In some years, the group's output reached an impressive inventory of 700 items, which were distributed by Beans and Bread, My Sister's Place, Our Daily Bread, Sarah's Place and Paul's Place.
No one was turned away who wanted to help. In one instance, Mrs. Heuisler instructed and coached a blind volunteer who later knitted 12 scarves a year.
"When I arrive at the charities with my station wagon filled with these items, people simply can't believe the quality," said Nancy Counselman, a Catholic Charities volunteer. "The hats are very distinctive. You can spot them on the street because of their bright colors and know they came from Roland Park Place."
The former Elizabeth Kelly was born and raised in Ten Hills in Southwest Baltimore. She graduated in 1928 from Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville and, at her death, was the parochial girl school's oldest living alumna.
She worked as a buyer for O'Neill's department store in Baltimore before her 1934 marriage to Philip I. Heuisler Jr.
Mr. Heuisler, president and chairman of Maryland Glass Co., which manufactured the distinctive "Baltimore Blue" glass bottles for Bromo Seltzer, Noxzema, Vicks Vapo-Rub and other pharmaceutical products, died in 1994.
Mrs. Heuisler also was active with the Hammond-Harwood Guild, Roland Park Garden Club and the Baltimore Opera Guild.
She was a communicant of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5300 N. Charles St., where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
In addition to her sons, she is survived by five grandchildren.
Pub Date: 3/11/99