Mary Rosemond, a Rosemont neighborhood activist who successfully fought Baltimore's "Highway to Nowhere," died of heart disease Jan. 18 at the Spring Arbor assisted-living center near her daughter's home in Timberlake, N.C. She was 85.
Born Mary Elizabeth Morgan in Jacksonville, Fla., she was a graduate of the Boylan Haven Girl's School and earned a bachelor's degree from Hampton University.
She moved to Baltimore nearly 60 years ago and joined the Baltimore public school system. She taught for many years at Lexington Terrace Elementary School and retired nearly 20 years ago.
When she bought a West Baltimore corner rowhouse in the mid-1950s, she was among the first African-American families to settle on Rosedale Street.
"The black community was just beginning to push into this area," she said in a 2009 Baltimore Sun interview. "I liked the house and wanted to have a yard."
When planners charted an interstate highway through the Gwynns Falls Valley, which borders Rosemont, she joined two anti-road coalitions, the Movement Against Destruction and Volunteers Opposed to the Leakin Park Expressway. She recalled in the interview that the road-building scenario was all too familiar to her. An interstate highway had been cut through her family's neighborhood in Jacksonville.
"They just broke up the neighborhood," she said. "But my mama wouldn't sell."
She said she adopted a similar spirit in Rosemont in the 1960s. She joined in the coalitions and eventually won a public relations war against the highway, which stops at the city line but continues in the adjacent Franklin-Mulberry area. Her untouched neighborhood — along with several others — is in between.
"She was a real soldier for Rosemont," said Robert Hunt, a neighbor who is with the Alliance of Rosemont Community Organizations. "She was a mentor to me and my guide. Even after she had moved away because of her health, she would call me and ask how the community was doing."
Mr. Hunt said Mrs. Rosemond was a collector of neighborhood news. She filled 55 loose-leaf binders and shelved them in her basement. Many of her comments were written in her neat, schoolteacher's script.
"She could tell you how this area has changed, minute by minute," Mr. Hunt said. "She was our treasure."
Mr. Hunt said that he discovered that Mrs. Rosemond was also a meticulous preserver of correspondence with city officials. She saved fliers about community cleanups and committee notes. She also believed the Rosemont archive should be made available to a wider audience.
"She worked nights on the dining room table," said a daughter, Amelia Smith of Timberlake, N.C.
Mr. Hunt contacted Baltimore Heritage, a preservation group. One of its interns, a social worker who had been frustrated by what she had thought was a shortage of information about the neighborhood, visited Mrs. Rosemond.
"When I saw the shelves filled with binders, my mouth dropped, and I quickly made a space for myself on the floor so that I could sit and read," said Brandi Nieland, the former intern who is now a United Way of Central Maryland employee. "What her neighborhood did for itself is inspiring. Her collection is like Baltimore City's personal diary."
The collection is now online and is housed as a reference document at the University of Baltimore.
"She was incredibly willing to tell her story and share her experience," Ms. Nieland said. "She was a fascinating woman. It was a pleasure spending time with her."
Ms. Nieland said that after the highway fight subsided, Mrs. Rosemond later focused on fighting drugs, cleaning blocks and creating a corner park.
"She was an inspiration," Ms. Nieland said. "If no one tries to fight back, then nothing is going to work."
Mrs. Rosemond also enjoyed painting in oils and filled her home with her works. In retirement, she was a volunteer at Belmont and Lillie M. Jackson elementary schools.
A funeral Mass will be held at 9 a.m. Friday at St. James Episcopal Church, Arlington and Lafayette avenues, where she was a member. A memorial service will follow at 10 a.m.
In addition to her daughter, survivors include a son, Edward Rosemond of Upper Marlboro; another daughter, Vivian Hires of Jacksonville, Fla.; a brother, Marion Morgan of Jacksonville; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Her marriages ended in divorce.