Antiques Dealer

Grace Maynard, a retired Howard County antiques dealer, died Saturday from complications of a stroke at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Columbia. She was 91. She was born in Baltimore and raised in Windsor Hills. Her father, William Hard Maynard, who had been a Baltimore deputy state's attorney, had rewritten Maryland's penal code. Her mother, Helen Vail Maynard, was a homemaker. After graduating in 1939 from Forest Park High School and Eaton and Burnett Business College, she went to work for the Army at Fort Meade, and later held jobs at The Baltimore Sun and the Social Security Administration, when it was downtown in the Candler Building before it relocated in 1960 to Woodlawn.

Grace Maynard, a retired Howard County antiques dealer, died Saturday from complications of a stroke at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Columbia. She was 91. She was born in Baltimore and raised in Windsor Hills. Her father, William Hard Maynard, who had been a Baltimore deputy state's attorney, had rewritten Maryland's penal code. Her mother, Helen Vail Maynard, was a homemaker. After graduating in 1939 from Forest Park High School and Eaton and Burnett Business College, she went to work for the Army at Fort Meade, and later held jobs at The Baltimore Sun and the Social Security Administration, when it was downtown in the Candler Building before it relocated in 1960 to Woodlawn.

Eugene S. Watson, an antiques dealer who traded in 20th-century American modern design and was later an office manager, died of an embolism Oct. 15 at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He was 64 and lived in East Baltimore. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he served in the Navy from 1965 to 1969. During his tour of duty, he was chief computer operator of the Naval Security Station in Washington and served at times aboard the USS Wright. He served when his ship was known as the "floating White House" because President Lyndon B. Johnson used the vessel as his headquarters for a Latin American summit conference.

Hampden Hi-Fi wrapped up its Roosevelt Park outdoor concert series last Friday, July 27, with what looked to be one of the biggest crowds of its eight-week run, despite the heat. And while nothing official has been announced, here's hoping organizers bring it back again next year, as everyone I spoke to who attended all of the concerts enjoyed the series. It's a great opportunity for neighbors to get together, hang out outside, have a couple drinks and hear some tunes. After all, the more options for music and live entertainment we have in the neighborhood, the more fun Hampden is. In fact, when Forbes magazine recently ranked America's top 20 "coolest cities," Baltimore came in 14th (above Philadelphia.

Anita P. "Bumps" Jenkins, an Eastern Shore antiques dealer who enjoyed dancing, died Nov. 5 in her sleep at Chester River Manor, a Chestertown assisted-living facility. She was 94. Anita Phillips, the daughter of the Belvedere Hotel manager and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Towson and Cedarcroft. She was known as "Bumps" because when she was a child, she had trouble navigating stairs. "Because she had scarlet fever, she never graduated from Towson High School," said her daughter, Barrie H. Islev-Petersen of Chester.

Elizabeth Schott Antaya, an antiques dealer specializing in Swedish furniture, died Monday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center of complications from diabetes. She was 79 and had lived in Timonium for 40 years. Mrs. Antaya grew up in Cohasset, a historic town on Boston's South Shore. As a teen-ager there, she frequented antiques auctions, returning home with old coin banks and pieces of Canton china. "It was kind of just from growing up in a small New England town where you're exposed to a lot of history," said her son Douglas Antaya of Duxbury, Mass.

Irma Mae Novotny, a retired antiques dealer, died Dec. 11 at Reading Hospital and Medical Center in Reading, Pa., of injuries from an automobile accident earlier this year. The former Towson resident was 85. Born Irma Mae Dvorsak and raised in Dayton, Ohio, she completed a two-year program in Ohio at the Dickinson School of Business. She married George A. Novotny in 1942, and the couple moved in 1947 to Baltimore, where her husband helped operate his family's tool and die business. On her own, with a friend and later with her husband, Mrs. Novotny operated antiques businesses in Maryland and Pennsylvania beginning in the 1960s.

Joe F. Archer, a well-known Carroll County antiques dealer and collector of Americana, died Monday of cancer at his Westminster home. He was 80.Mr. Archer and his wife of 55 years, the former Mary Chilcoat Storey, who died last year, had operated Archer's Antiques in a shop on Baltimore Boulevard near Westminster for over 50 years.In recent years, they operated the business out of their home.The Archers also collected 18th and 19th century American decorative arts, including clocks, furniture, silver, paintings and porcelains.

Joyce F. Prevost, a retired registered nurse and antiques dealer, died of a heart attack Oct. 18 at her home in the Pinehurst neighborhood of Baltimore. She was 82. She was born Joyce Fangmeyer in Baltimore and raised in Martinsburg, W.Va. She was a 1944 graduate of the Union Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. "From 1944 to 1945, she was a civilian nurse with the Army Cadet Nurse Corps," said her husband of 46 years, Theodore Lucas Prevost. She served overseas in World War II. After the war, Mrs. Prevost was the head pediatric nurse for 13 years at the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children on the grounds of Johns Hopkins Hospital until leaving in 1960.

Mary "Mollie" Brent Lucas, a retired interior designer and antiques dealer who raised funds for Johns Hopkins Hospital, died of a stroke Wednesday at Union Memorial Hospital. The Tuscany-Canterbury resident was 75. Mary Brent Johnston was born in Baltimore and raised in Charlcote House in Guilford. She attended Calvert and Bryn Mawr schools, and was a 1947 graduate of St. Timothy's School, the year she made her debut at the Bachelors Cotillon. Mrs. Lucas was a relative of Margaret Brent, the 17th-century Maryland lawyer.

James "Jimmie" Judd, a well-known antiques dealer recalled for his elaborate homes and discerning eye for art, died of prostate cancer Thursday at his Inner Harbor home. He was 82. Born in Baltimore and raised on East North Avenue at Collington Avenue, he attend city public schools until he was in the eighth grade. "He was severely dyslexic," said his wife, Barbara Katz Judd, who had owned the old White Coffee Pot restaurant chain. "He was a rags-to-riches story and had a reading disability that he was able to transcend later in life.

Anita P. "Bumps" Jenkins, an Eastern Shore antiques dealer who enjoyed dancing, died Nov. 5 in her sleep at Chester River Manor, a Chestertown assisted-living facility. She was 94. Anita Phillips, the daughter of the Belvedere Hotel manager and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Towson and Cedarcroft. She was known as "Bumps" because when she was a child, she had trouble navigating stairs. "Because she had scarlet fever, she never graduated from Towson High School," said her daughter, Barrie H. Islev-Petersen of Chester.

Eugene S. Watson, an antiques dealer who traded in 20th-century American modern design and was later an office manager, died of an embolism Oct. 15 at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He was 64 and lived in East Baltimore. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he served in the Navy from 1965 to 1969. During his tour of duty, he was chief computer operator of the Naval Security Station in Washington and served at times aboard the USS Wright. He served when his ship was known as the "floating White House" because President Lyndon B. Johnson used the vessel as his headquarters for a Latin American summit conference.

Albert M. Jackson, a retired chemical engineer and a longtime Baltimore County antiques dealer, died Tuesday of cancer and liver failure at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 86. Mr. Jackson, the son of a police officer and a homemaker, was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tenn. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied engineering. He served in the Army during World War II and participated in the occupation of Japan before being discharged with the rank of staff sergeant in 1946.

Bernice Frances Margolet, who dealt in French and Asian antiques for nearly six decades, most of the time in her family-owned Howard Street business, died Saturday of heart disease at her Guilford home. She was 86. Known variously as Bernice, Bern, Frances or Margo, she often wore a French-style beret that became her fashion signature. "She had wonderful taste and a great, great eye," said P. Raab Christ hilf, director of fine art at Alex Cooper Auctioneers. "I bought from her; my grandmother bought from her."

A rare example of Baltimore's architectural history was nearly lost several years ago when an 1871 firehouse on West Mulberry Street was torn down to make way for redevelopment. It was the only firehouse in Baltimore -- and one of the last surviving buildings in the city -- whose first-floor front facade was made of cast iron, a popular local building material in the 1800s, but not in use today. A quick thinking preservationist saw the demolition work under way and managed to salvage the largest cast-iron pieces before they were carted off for scrap metal.

It would have been easy to label Theresa Baier one of downtown Baltimore's bag ladies. She wore battered old clothes and carried a plastic bag of sandwiches. She often needed a bath. She could be unpleasant and snarl at people.When her will was read, after her July 1990 death, the document revealed that one of Howard Street's truly remarkable characters had amassed an extensive estate, later determined to be worth $4.3 million. The bulk of it was left to animal protection groups, the Red Cross and St. Elizabeth's School and Habilitation Center.