John T. Martelle, a former bank advertising executive who was active in the affairs of St. Rita's Roman Catholic Church, died of cancer Saturday at his home in Chase. He was 67.

Mr. Martelle was born in Baltimore and raised on Darley Avenue. He was a 1951 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School and served in the Navy in the early 1950s.

Mr. Martelle began his career at Monarch Advertising in Baltimore, and later went to work in the advertising department of Maryland National Bank. He remained after it became part of NationsBank, and retired in the 1990s.

Deeply religious, Mr. Martelle entered the diaconate program for the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1978. He was ordained a permanent deacon by Archbishop William D. Borders in 1983 and assigned to St. Rita's Roman Catholic Church in Dundalk. He was the first permanent deacon at St. Rita's, where a Mass of Christian burial was offered yesterday.

He is survived by his wife of 44 years, the former Mary Carol Vasil; two daughters, Mena M. Dyches of Bel Air and Jovone M. Martelle of Chase; his mother, Mena E. Romeo-Martelle of Chase; and a grandson.