Katherine H. "Katzy" Banker, a former travel agent who had been Baltimore magazine's food editor, died Monday at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson of complications of dementia. She was 81.
The daughter of James E. Henderson, a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, and Elizabeth Henderson, a homemaker, the former Katherine Eno Henderson was born in Washington and was raised in Estonia, Greece, the Philippines and Mexico.
She was a 1951 graduate of Dominican Convent High School in San Rafael, Calif. After earning a bachelor's degree in 1955 from Swarthmore College, she moved to Naples, Italy, where her father was U.S. consul general.
She returned to Washington, and in 1957 she married Dr. Guy S. McKhann They lived in Boston and Palo Alto, Calif.
The couple came to Baltimore in 1969 when her husband left Stanford University to come to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he founded the department of neurology. They divorced in 1982.
In 1983, she married Paul A. Banker, who was managing editor of The Baltimore Sun and Sunday Sun. He died in 1998.
Mrs. Banker combined her passion for travel and food when she worked as a travel agent for Bon Voyage Travel Agency and later was food editor of Baltimore magazine in the 1970s and early 1980s.
"She enjoyed organizing exceptional trips to far-flung corners of the world for family, friends and clients to see and experience the world off the beaten path," said a daughter, Emily McKhann of Larchmont, N.Y.
Family members recalled Mrs. Banker's favorable review for Trattoria Petrucci in Little Italy.
"The owners wrote to her to tell her that their new restaurant had been near bankruptcy and was about to close its doors when her review came out," said Ms. McKhann. "People immediately started calling to make reservations and showed up with the article in hand to order the dishes she most recommended."
Mrs. Banker and her husband had lived in Ruxton and later in Phoenix, Baltimore County. After his death, Mrs. Banker moved to a home on Drohomer Place in North Roland Park.
Mrs. Banker was a gracious hostess who enjoyed entertaining family and friends. She prepared with ease 15-course Chinese dinners, Mexican enchiladas, Japanese tempura or Italian pesto, "long before any of these became menu staples around town," said Ms. McKhann.
An inveterate reader, Mrs. Banker, who had lived at Blakehurst since 2006, always had piles of library books in her home.
She had been a hospice volunteer.
Plans for a memorial service are incomplete.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Banker is survived by four sons, James McKhann of Towson, Dr. Guy S. McKhann III of Bronxville, N.Y., Ian McKhann of Mallorytown, Ontario, and Charles McKhann of Minneapolis; two stepdaughters, Carol B. Smith of Hunt Valley and Nancy C. Banker of Dixon, Calif.; a sister, Ann Renzoni of Siena, Italy; and seven grandchildren.