Dorothy C. Blades, a retired Queen Anne's County elementary school educator and volunteer, died of complications from a broken hip Saturday at Kent & Queen Anne's Hospital in Chestertown. She was 89 and lived in Sudlersville.

Born Dorothy Clow in Germantown, Pa., she moved with her family to Sudlersville in 1917. Mrs. Blades was a 1929 graduate of Sudlersville High School and a 1931 graduate of Salisbury State Normal School, now Salisbury University, where she earned her teaching certificate. In 1951, she earned a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Delaware.

She began her teaching career at the Felton School, a one-room school in Queen Anne's County. She later taught fourth and fifth grade at Sudlersville Elementary School until her retirement in 1977.

She was a member of Calvary Asbury United Methodist Church and volunteered with the Sudlersville Betterment Club and Queen Anne's Hospice Volunteers Inc. For years, Mrs. Blades enjoyed refinishing antique furniture in the basement of her home.

She was married in 1940 to Samuel Blades Sr., who died in 1968.

Services were held yesterday in Millington.

She is survived by a son, Samuel Blades Jr. of Avon, Conn.; a daughter, Betsy Blades of Baltimore; a brother, Earl Clow of Dover, Del.; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.