Mary Wallace Flowers, an artist and dress designer, died of cancer Saturday at her Roland Park home. She was 72.
Mrs. Flowers' work had been exhibited in several Baltimore galleries, and a 14-painting exhibit is on display at St. David's Episcopal Church in Roland Park.
Mrs. Flowers received her first set of oil paints and brushes when she was 10 years old. Lacking a proper canvas, she painted on her bedroom window shade. That winter, she created a three-wall mural depicting the classic children's tale "Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates," by Mary Mapes Dodge. She painted in oils - mostly landscapes, cityscapes and portraits - for the next 62 years.
In Baltimore, her paintings have been exhibited at the Space Telescope Science Institute at the Johns Hopkins University, the former Morgan & Millard restaurant gallery, the Women's Hamilton Street Club, the Mill Center and Pearl Gallery in Hampden and Sisson's restaurant and brewery in Federal Hill.
Her creativity wasn't limited to painting. For years, Mrs. Flowers designed and sewed clothes for her family and friends. After several friends encouraged her to go into business for herself, she became a couturier, working from the cluttered basement of her home. The business flourished for nearly two decades.
Mrs. Flowers designed and sewed the bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses for all three of her children's weddings.
"She did it without a pattern," said her daughter Mary Louise Foster of Glyndon, who was married in 1991. "She just made it up. This is why we told her she was more than a seamstress; she was a designer."
Born Mary Miller Wallace in Knoxville, Tenn., she earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from University of Tennessee in 1950. She married Charles V. Flowers Jr. later that year, and the couple moved to Baltimore in 1959 when he took a reporting job at The Sun.
The Flowers lived in England from 1966 to 1969, when Mr. Flowers was chief of The Sun's London bureau. He died in 1990.
Mrs. Flowers' other interests included gardening, playing tennis, attending the theater and symphony, reading and researching the genealogy of her family.
"I met Mary about 10 years ago in the shallow end of the Roland Park pool," said Elspeth Banker Wheeler, a friend. "She was talking about a book she had just read, `Cold Sassy Tree.' Our friendship grew from there. The everlasting gift she gave me was a picture she painted depicting the stages of life."
A service of Christian burial for Mrs. Flowers will be held at 3 p.m. Dec. 2 at St. David's Episcopal Church, 4700 Roland Ave.
Besides Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Flowers is survived by another daughter, Phoebe Flowers O'Neill of Baltimore; a son, Wallace Charles Flowers of Lexington, Va.; a brother, Campbell Wallace Jr., of Knoxville; and five grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be made to the VNA of Maryland Home Care and Hospice, 7008 Security Blvd., Baltimore 21244; or St. David's Church, 4700 Roland Ave., Baltimore 21210.
