James Thomas Lee Stubbs, a retired hospital laundry manager and World War II veteran, died Sunday of complications from dementia at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Perry Hall resident was 95.
The son of a factory worker and Montgomery Ward cafeteria worker, he was born in Baltimore and raised in Pigtown.
After his father, who worked at the Cat's Paw factory in South Baltimore, lost his job during the Depression, Mr. Stubbs dropped out of Southern High School in 1936 to help support his family.
He went to work at Montgomery Ward on Washington Boulevard as an order filler in the company's catalog department. He proved to be so proficient that he was promoted to buyer.
He was married in 1941 to the former Dorothea Sprainis and two years later enlisted in the Army Air Forces, where he served in Brazil as a mechanic and gunner. He was discharged in 1946.
After the war, he returned to Baltimore and went to work for his mother-in-law, Bettye Miller, who was known as the "Queen of Burlesque Row." He took a job as day manager at the Stork Club, whose name was later changed to Bettye Mills' Club after the New York club of the same name sued.
After her death in 1956, the club was sold, and he took a job managing Fulton Laundry. He later managed the Hilton Hotel laundry and from 1978 to 1983, he was manager of the laundry at St. Agnes Hospital.
The longtime resident of the Alameda, who moved to Perry Hall a decade ago, was a Mason and a member of Corinthian Lodge and the Scottish Rite.
He was a member of Christ Lutheran Church, 701 S. Charles St., where services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
Surviving are his wife of 71 years; two daughters, Bettye Wolinski of Perry Hall and Sherrye Bolan of Perry Hall; a brother, Richard Stubbs of Arbutus; and a granddaughter.