James Everett Sewell, 66, repaired heavy machinery

James Everett Sewell, a 40-year mechanic for heavy equipment and avid crabber, died Friday at Easton Hospital of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage he had suffered 13 months earlier. He was 66.

Mr. Sewell was born in the Eastern Shore in the small town of Wittman. His family moved to nearby St. Michaels, where he went to high school.

After graduation in 1954, Mr. Sewell spent four years in the Air Force as a radar specialist, achieving the rank of airman first class.

In 1957, he married the former Colleen Harrison. The couple lived in Easton, where Mr. Sewell repaired trucks and heavy machinery until his retirement in 1998. He spent many of those years working for the Maryland Department of Transportation.

"He was very good with his hands," Mrs. Sewell said, which aided in one of his favorite hobbies: tending his garden.

"He took great pride in his vegetable garden. He grew tomatoes and cucumbers and string beans -- all those Eastern Shore-type things." said his wife, a former Talbot County election official.

After his brain hemorrhage, Mr. Sewell spent 10 months in Baltimore hospitals, undergoing surgery at Sinai Hospital and rehabilitation at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center & Hospital.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Spring Hill Cemetery, 123 North St., Easton.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Sewell is survived by a daughter, Dawne Sewell Lindsay of Summerville, S.C.; two sons, Mark H. Sewell of Easton and Kenny Sewell of Preston; and four sisters: Marie Swartz, Emily Ortt and Laura Harrison, all of Easton, and Etta Miller of Wittman.