Services for Gertrude Neale, a retired procurement official at old Fort Holabird in Southeast Baltimore, will begin with a noon family hour Saturday at Union Memorial United Methodist Church, 2500 Harlem Ave., where she had been a member for more than five decades.
Mrs. Neale, 89, died of Alzheimer's disease Dec. 30 at the home of a son in Baltimore. She had lived in the Ashburton neighborhood for many years.
Born Gertrude Mattie Louise Bagwell in Spartanburg, S.C., she was a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, she was formerly treasurer of its Baltimore chapter.
She moved to Baltimore in 1942 with her husband, Howard L. Neale Sr., who survives.
A federal employee for nearly 40 years, she retired in 1980 as a procurement section chief at Fort Holabird.
She was a longtime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and participated in the 1963 March on Washington.
Also surviving are two sons, Howard L. Neale Jr. of Columbia and Emery Frank Neale of Baltimore; a sister, Loretta B. White of Elizabeth City, N.C.; six grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
