Helen H. Linhard, a retired Baltimore County Department of Social Services secretary who enjoyed vacationing in Ocean City, died Monday of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. She was 82.
The daughter of Rudolph Hertzog, an attorney, and Helen Hertzog, a homemaker, Helen Mary Hertzog was born in Washington and spent her early childhood years in New York City.
She was a 1949 graduate of the Convent and Academy of the Visitation in Georgetown and earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1953 from what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University.
Before her 1954 marriage to James Ferdinand Linhard, who later was personnel manager for the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn, she worked as a secretary for the Central Intelligence Agency.
While raising her six children, Mrs. Linhard worked for Baltimore County public schools teaching special-needs children. During the 1970s, she was assistant director for continuing education at what was then the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
She later worked for several years as a secretary for the Baltimore County Department of Social Services until retiring in 2000.
Mrs. Linhard was a longtime communicant at Immaculate Conception Church in Towson, where she also volunteered.
For the last 20 years, Mrs. Linhard, a Towson resident, liked vacationing in Ocean City where she enjoyed riding her bike.
A world traveler, Mrs. Linhard also enjoyed participating in book clubs, visiting museums, playing tennis and attending the theater.
Her husband of 27 years died in 1982.
A memorial Mass will be offered at 10 a.m. Saturday at her church, Baltimore and Ware avenues, Towson.
She is survived by two sons, James Ferdinand Linhard Jr. of Towson and John Joseph Linhard of Edgewood; two daughters, Helen Linhard Aberle of Towson and Rachel McGraw Linhard of Baltimore; and six grandchildren. She was predeceased by a son, Michael Brian Linhard, who died in 2008, as well as a daughter, Maura Linhard Conner, who died in 2003.