Dorethea A. Greene, a state health department scientist and award-winning golfer, died Sunday of ovarian cancer at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. She was 68 and lived in Reisterstown.
A lab supervisor for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, she was one of Baltimore's pioneering black women golf players.
Born in Winston-Salem, N.C., she graduated from St. Ann's Academy there and earned a degree in chemistry from College Misericordia in Dallas, Pa.
After teaching science and coaching girls basketball at Easton Junior-Senior High School on the Eastern Shore in the mid-1950s, she joined the Maryland State Health Department's bureau of laboratories in 1957 and remained there for the next 45 years.
A lab supervisor, she worked in virology, immunology and disease control.
Miss Greene began playing golf in the late 1960s. She initially played on Wednesday nights after work at Carroll Park in Southwest Baltimore.
"A girlfriend was playing tennis, and she decided she wanted company to play golf," Miss Greene said in a 1976 interview in The Sun, when, according to the article, she was the only African-American to play in the Women's Metropolitan Golf Tournament held at the Elkridge Club in North Baltimore. Miss Greene played in the tournament for many years.
She played in numerous tournaments and became president of the Forest Park Golf Club in Northwest Baltimore. She was also tournament chairwoman for Baltimore's Pitch and Putt golf club, a black woman's organization. Many of her trophies were on display in her home.
"She was dedicated to her work, her family and friends," said her brother, Sylvester Greene of Randallstown. "She was a pioneer as a black female golfer in the Baltimore area. Golf combined the two things she loved - athletics and travel."
She twice won the Ladies Club Championship for the Pitch and Putt Club and the Forest Park Course. In 1982, she represented Maryland in the USGA Public Links Championship in Eugene, Ore. In 1985, she scored a hole-in-one at the Southern Pines Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C.
Miss Greene belonged to New All Saints Roman Catholic Church in Northwest Baltimore.
"She was a loyal member of New All Saints and was an enthusiastic member of the pastoral council," said Bernadette Anderson, an Ashburton resident. "She always did her share and was a very willing worker."
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at noon today at St. Benedict Roman Catholic Church, 1625 E. 12th Street, Winston-Salem, N.C.
In addition to Sylvester Greene, she is survived by two other brothers, Butler Greene of Milwaukee and Anthony K. Greene of Winston-Salem; three sisters, Betsy Williams of Randallstown, Edythe Harris of White Plains in Charles County and Cassandra Green Walker of Winston-Salem; and nephews and nieces.