Esther V. Wagoner, a former assistant deputy director of the of the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn, died Monday at St. Joseph Medical Center of heart failure after a long illness. The Upper Park Heights resident was 82.
Born Esther Cabell in Charlotte Courthouse, Va., she moved with her family to Baltimore when she was a child. She graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1936. She also completed courses at the Cortez Peters Business School.
In 1940, she married Landres Smith, and a year later they had the first of two daughters. They lived in East Baltimore.
She stayed home taking care of her family until the mid-1950s, when she worked briefly as a waitress at the Southern Hotel and several other downtown Baltimore hotels.
The marriage ended in 1955.
She spent about three years working her way up from a maid to a carpet buyer at the Hochschild Kohn department store. In 1958, she joined the Social Security Administration, where she would work the next 20 years.
Mrs. Wagoner started as a clerk in the downtown office, and moved up the ranks into supervisory positions until she became an assistant deputy director of operations at the Woodlawn office.
"She was a career person when most women were housewives," said her daughter, Daphne Carter of Baltimore. "She strived to provide for her children and inspired us to achieve our goals, both short-range and long-range." Her mother set a strong example, she said, receiving recognition for her work through several awards.
Her mother married Robert Wagoner in the early 1960s. The marriage ended in divorce about two years later.
While she worked at the Social Security Administration, she volunteered to work with disabled children.
"She just felt someone needed to care about them," Mrs. Carter said.
She enjoyed going to theaters and visiting senior centers to participate in activities with her peers. As her health declined this past decade, Mrs. Wagoner relied on neighbors James and Mattie Watts to help her, Mrs. Carter said.
She was an active parishioner at the Faith Baptist Church, where she sang in the choir.
Services will be held at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow at Faith Baptist Church, 833 N. Bond St.
Mrs. Wagoner is survived by another daughter, Brenda Williams of Baltimore; five grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; two aunts; and many nieces and nephews.