Eleanor Howard Jones Coale, 80, active in garden clubs

Eleanor Howard Jones Coale, who was active in garden clubs and once owned a gift shop, died Sunday of pneumonia at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She was 80 and lived in Roland Park.

Born Eleanor Howard Jones in Baltimore, she was a 1941 Bryn Mawr School graduate and also attended Bryn Mawr College.

In 1942 she married Joseph I. Coale, now retired president of the Commercial Envelope Co. He survives her.

Family members said her father, Howard S. Jones, was a member of the group of investors who bought the St. Louis Browns baseball franchise, moved the team to Baltimore and renamed it the Orioles.

"She was a great fan and was involved in the signing of Brooks Robinson. She remained very proud of that," said her son, John P. Coale, a Washington lawyer. "She lobbied her father and the others in the Orioles organization to sign him."

Mrs. Coale was a former president of the Woodlawn Garden Club and was a board member of the Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland.

She also was a 1960s founder of the Bee Hive, a Roland Park gift shop on Lawndale Road. She designed a locally popular women's handbag that featured interchangeable cotton covers piped with contrasting trim.

Services are private.

In addition to her husband and son, she is survived by three additional sons, Joseph Howard Coale of Greenwich, Conn., Charles N. Coale of Baltimore and Richard L. Coale of Cape May, N.J.; three daughters, Nancy C. Baker of Baltimore, Linda Howard Coale of Albuquerque, N.M., and Sally C. Matthai of Cape May; 13 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.