Nina Marie Startt, a retired medical secretary and an accomplished baker and seamstress, died of heart failure Nov. 24 at Edenton Retirement Community in Frederick. The Easton resident was 88.
Born in Cordova in Talbot County, she was the daughter of Harry DeSales Slaughter, a country grocery store keeper, and Kathleen Mary Easby-Smith Slaughter, a homemaker. She grew up in Cordova and was a 1943 graduate of Cordova High School. She then came to Baltimore to attend the Strayer Business College.
Family members said she recalled moving into the old Catholic Daughters of America Hall, a residence for single women, on West Franklin Street in Mount Vernon. She later lived with her aunt, Alma Emerson.
After she received her diploma, she became an X-ray technician at Easton Memorial Hospital.
In 1952 she married Thomas Paul Startt, who was a co-owner of Trader's Pharmacy on Washington Street in Easton. He later worked for the U.S. Postal Service.
After raising a family, she became a medical secretary in Easton. She worked for Dr. Alden James for many years at his offices, one on Creamery Lane and another on Dutchman's Lane. She retired fully nearly two years ago. She scheduled surgeries, handled insurance claims and took dictation.
"She was a skilled stenographer, but I recall her as delighting in her grandchildren," said Constance Harris "Connie" Sypniewski, who worked with her and lives in Cordova. "She was so proud of them."
"With her husband, she was well known for hosting holiday dinners, Christmas breakfasts after midnight Mass and huge summer crab feasts," said her daughter, Anastasia Marie Resnik of Frederick. "She loved to cook and was famous among family members for her luscious desserts. She a lovely woman with a truly kind heart."
Her daughter said she never used cake mixes for her children's birthdays. She used the old-fashioned one-two-three-four recipe (butter, sugar, flour and four eggs) and a chocolate, vanilla or orange butter cream icing. She also made her own yeast rolls and frequently served a cherry gelatin salad.
Her daughter said she enjoyed sewing and needlework and often had three or four projects in progress simultaneously. She mastered an intricate back-and-forth stitch known as the satin stitch. She also made clothes for herself and her daughter.
Her daughter said she kept of small library of transfers she used to make patterns for her needlework projects.
"She took great delight in presenting newly married couples with a set of her charmingly embroidered monogram pillowcases," her daughter said. "She jumped at the chance to surprise expectant mothers, some of whom she knew only remotely, with one of her beautiful embroidered baby blankets."
Mrs. Startt also had a rose garden. Family members said that when she retired from the medical practice, a co-worker's husband hybridized a pale pink-toned rose in her name. It was called the Retirement Rose.
She also read novels and two daily newspapers.
Mrs Startt did not like to pump her own gasoline. She patronized an Easton filling station that offered full service.
"My mother said that she pumped so much gas at her father's store in Cordova that she never wanted to pump any gas again," her daughter said.
A memorial Mass will be offered at 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Cordova.
In addition to her daughter, survivors include a son, Edward Kenly Startt of Rehoboth Beach, Del.; a brother, Harry DeSales Slaughter Jr. of Easton; three sisters, K. Patricia Roe and Mary Ann Whiteley, both of Easton, and Rita Grossnickle of Baltimore; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A son, Stephen DeSales Startt, died in 2007. Her husband of 47 years died in 1999.