Mary G. Simon, a retired special-education teacher and accomplished seamstress, died Sunday of complications from a stroke at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. She was 80.

Mary Gerker was born in Highland Park, Mich., and raised in St. Louis, where she graduated from Visitation Academy in 1945.

She earned a bachelor's degree in speech therapy from the University of St. Louis in 1949 and a master's degree in special education from what is now Coppin State University.

From 1949 to 1959, when she moved to Baltimore, Mrs. Simon was a homemaker. She taught special-education students at the Ridge School in Baltimore County from 1969 until she retired in 1989.

Mrs. Simon designed and sewed clothes - including wedding gowns - for family and friends. She also liked playing tennis and bridge.

Mrs. Simon, who had lived in Parkton for 20 years before moving to the Mercy Ridge retirement community in Timonium in 2003, was an active communicant of Our Lady of Grace Roman Catholic Church in Parkton.

Her husband of 55 years, Nicholas J. Simon Jr., retired McCormick & Co. director of human resources, died last year.

A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 11 a.m. Friday in the chapel at Stella Maris, 2300 Dulaney Valley Road.

Surviving are two sons, Nicholas J. Simon III of San Mateo, Calif., and John C. Simon of Naperville, Ill.; five daughters, Ann Simon-Spotts of Mill Valley, Calif., Alice J. Fair of Wilton, Conn., Peggy S. DeCrisspino and Fran Palmer, both of Parkton, and Therese A. Simon of Washington; a sister, Betty Bimslager of Florissant, Mo.; and 14 grandchildren.