Annarose Sleeth Bowers, a retired real estate attorney, died of rheumatoid arthritis complications Feb. 20 at Oak Crest Village. The former Stoneleigh resident was 86.

Born Annarose Catherine Sleeth in Washington, she earned a bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Maryland and was the valedictorian of her law school class.

She moved to Baltimore in 1944 and began the practice of law.

In 1954 she ran unsuccessfully for the Maryland House of Delegates from Baltimore's old 3rd District and had been state Young Republicans president.

In the early 1970s, she taught at Franklin Square Elementary School under a federal program that recruited teachers with varied backgrounds. At the time she earned a master's degree in education from Towson State University.

"In her Methodist upbringing, she saw the good in everyone," said her son, Clarke D. Bowers of Baltimore. "Physical appearance meant nothing to her."

In 1976, she became senior examiner for the Title Guarantee Co. She retired from what became Safeco Title Insurance in 1986 as vice president and assistant counsel.

She enjoyed genealogy and belonged to the Francis Scott Key Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She also did quilting, crewel embroidery and cross-stitch. She had been a member of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church.

Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Oak Crest Village Chapel, 8801 Walther Blvd.

In addition to her son, survivors include two other sons, Doran Bowers of Terra Alta, W.Va., and Keith Brierley-Bowers of Owings Mills; a brother, James R. Sleeth Jr. of Parkersburg, W.Va. ; a sister, Mary Paunil of Washington; and three granddaughters. Her husband of nearly 50 years, Henry Kenneth Bowers, died last year.