Meta P. Barton, a businesswoman who owned and managed various properties, died April 23 at her Delray Beach, Fla., home of heart failure. She was 86.
The daughter of Charles Lee Packard, an insurance executive, and Dorothy Holmes Levering Packard, a homemaker, the former Meta Margaret Packard was born in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park and Ruxton.
She was a 1946 graduate of Bryn Mawr School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1950 from Vassar College.
Later in life, while working as a drug counselor at Friends in Catonsville, she returned to college and earned a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1977 from what is now Loyola University Maryland.
Mrs. Barton was an avid daffodil gardener and often won first prizes for them. She was a member of the St. George's Garden Club.
A former resident of Ruxton and Cross Keys, Mrs. Barton had lived in Delray Beach for the past decade.
She was a peripatetic traveler who enjoyed visiting New Hampshire, Colorado and Europe. When she was 53, she climbed to a base camp on Mount Everest, and at 83, completed a pilgrimage in Greece that followed the footsteps of St. Paul.
"She was full of energy and pursued anything," said a daughter, Priscilla Taylor Barton of Amagansett, N.Y. "To her, the world was without limits."
Mrs. Barton was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Federated Church of Sandwich in Sandwich, N.H., and St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Delray Beach.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Barton is survived by two other daughters, Meta Walker Barton Patten of Wellesley, Mass., and Emilie Packard Barton Kelly of Morrison, Colo.; and seven grandchildren. Another daughter, Blair Lee Barton, died in 2011. Her marriage to David W. Barton Jr. ended in divorce.