Nancy H. Suerth, casting agent

Nancy H. Suerth, former owner of a commercial cleaning and janitorial services company who later established a casting and talent agency, died Dec. 8 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson.

The longtime Edgewood resident was 80.

Nancy Hines was born and raised in Springfield, Mass., where she graduated from high school in 1949.

After she married Edgar Forsdick in 1951, the couple moved to Westport, Conn. The couple later divorced.

She married William J. Sullivan Jr., a career Army officer, in 1956, and four years later they moved to Baltimore.

He died in 2001.

From 1964 to 1965, she managed the John Robert Powers modeling agency on North Charles Street.

She worked for ServiceMaster, a home cleaning, maintenance and pest control company, from 1966 to 1968, when she established Accurate Cleaning Co., a commercial cleaning and janitorial services company.

"She had more than 25 commercial buildings in downtown Baltimore," said her son, William J. Sullivan III, who lives in Edgewood.

Always interested in the arts, especially music, dancing and the theater, Mrs. Suerth closed her cleaning business in 1981 and opened Accurate Casting & Talent in Edgewood.

Mrs. Suerth furnished acting talent for movies, commercials and documentaries, as well as infomercials, voice-overs and promotions, family members said.

Mrs. Suerth, who had reduced her schedule in recent years, had not retired at her death, her son said.

"She lived her life with an unbridled faith, to see only the good in the world around her and her family," her son said. "She always gave of herself without fail. I can never remember a single instance of her complaining about any hardship she ever faced within her own life."

A celebration of her life will be held from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Living Classrooms' Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park, 1417 Thames St., Fells Point.

Also surviving are three daughters, Monica Read Gudaitis of Edgewood, Kimberlee A. Paradise of Baltimore and Candice Ann Sullivan of Boynton Beach, Fla.; a brother, Kermit Hines of Tampa, Fla.; and two grandchildren. Her marriage to Philip Suerth ended in divorce.

fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com