Georgia H. "Banna" Stokes, a retired department store manager and active church member, died Jan. 9 of complications from dementia at Elesy Manor, a Lochearn assisted-living facility.

The longtime Northeast Baltimore resident was 90.

Georgia Havana Meacham, the daughter of a farmer and a housekeeper, was born in Virginia. She later moved to Baltimore with her family and graduated from Carver Vocational-Technical High School.

Mrs. Stokes worked as a housekeeper for a Baltimore physician and his family, and later was supervisor of housekeeping at Stewart's department store on York Road in Rodgers Forge for many years. She retired from Stewart's in 1981.

Since the 1940s, Mrs. Stokes had been a member of Fulton Baptist Church. She had been treasurer and a teacher in the church's Sunday school.

A deaconess, she had served as president of the deaconess board and was a former president of the Church Aid Society. She also served as a member of the kitchen committee, finance committee and the Baptist Training Union.

Mrs. Stokes also regularly attended local, statewide and national meetings and conventions of the National Congress of Christian Education and the Baptist Training Union.

"She enjoyed participating in church bus trips and especially the retreat to New York City at Christmas," said her son, Lee Meacham Stokes of Pikesville.

Mrs. Stokes was a member of the St. Dunstan's Road Neighborhood Association and "worked tirelessly with Al-Anon and Alcoholics Anonymous," her son said.

Mrs. Stokes enjoyed crocheting and cooking, and was especially known for her poundcake, family members said.

She was married for more than 60 years to Lee A. Stokes, a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. shipyard worker, who died in 2005.

Services were held Wednesday at her church.

In addition to her son, Mrs. Stokes is survived by an adopted daughter, Frances Tibbs of Appomattox, Va.; two grandsons; and a great-granddaughter.