Needlework

Jeanne Ellen Foster, an accomplished needlework teacher and quilter who helped run a family funeral home, died of respiratory failure Monday at the Forest Hill Health and Rehabilitation Center. The Bel Air resident was 79. Born Jeanne Ellen Armstrong in Lancaster, Pa., she was the daughter of Albert Ledmon Armstrong, who headed the paint decorating section in the can factory that produced McCormick spice tins. She was a 1948 graduate of Manheim Township High School and Hood College, where she earned a degree in mathematics.

Jeanne Ellen Foster, an accomplished needlework teacher and quilter who helped run a family funeral home, died of respiratory failure Monday at the Forest Hill Health and Rehabilitation Center. The Bel Air resident was 79. Born Jeanne Ellen Armstrong in Lancaster, Pa., she was the daughter of Albert Ledmon Armstrong, who headed the paint decorating section in the can factory that produced McCormick spice tins. She was a 1948 graduate of Manheim Township High School and Hood College, where she earned a degree in mathematics.

The Woodlawn Plantation Needlework Exhibition not only has the distinction of being America's oldest and largest needlework exposition, but this year it has been voted one of the top 20 events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Board. It opens on Saturday and runs through March 27 at Woodlawn, home of Martha Washington's granddaughter, Nelly Custis Lewis, in Alexandria, Va."A Stitch in Time" is the theme of the show, which attracts more than 1,000 entries from all over the United States and even from abroad.

Jane W. Courtney, a former newspaper columnist, accomplished needlepoint worker and volunteer, died Thursday of a stroke at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She was 76. The daughter of a salesman and a seamstress, the former Jane Weismuller was born and raised in Livingston, N.J. She was a graduate of Livingston High School. After her marriage to James M. Courtney Jr., a chemical engineer, in 1951, the couple lived in Newark, and later moved to Mendham, N.J. Mrs. Courtney studied writing at the County College of Morris in Morristown, N.J., and at New York University's New School.

America's oldest and largest needlework exhibition opens Saturday and continues through March 29 at Woodlawn Plantation in Mount Vernon, Va. The plantation was a wedding present from George Washington to his foster daughter, Nellie Custis Lewis, who married Washington's nephew, Maj. Lawrence Lewis, in 1799.The show features some 950 to 1,000 entries from all over the country in both amateur and professional categories. The pieces will be displayed throughout the entire mansion. On weekdays experts will present demonstrations and mini-seminars covering a wide range of needlework topics.

WESTTOWN, Pa. - The first year, teacher Shannon Almquist thought she had just lucked out with a spectacular class. But when success repeated itself the second year, then the third, she quit worrying. Fourth-graders really did enjoy needlework, boys included. Recently, when Almquist stood before her 19 girls and boys, she smiled. "You are going to make an heirloom," she announced. "One day, when you're very old, someone will go through the attic and find it and say, `What's this?'" For the second time in more than 200 years, stitching samplers is becoming a tradition at the Westtown School.

An item in the Daytrip listings in Thursday's Maryland Live section provided incorrect information about a needlework competition at Kerr Place in Onancock on the Easter Shore of Virginia. The needlework competition was held two weeks ago. An exhibition of needlework continues there through June 7.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 5/26/96

Historic Sotterley Plantation in Hollywood will be the site of the eighth annual Southern Maryland Quilt & Needlework Show this coming weekend. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Sotterley volunteers will be offering plants for sale, and lunch and snacks will be available. Admission is $5 for adults; free for children under 12. Events benefit the Sotterley Foundation Inc. and Historic Sotterley. Some of the other features are:* A display of judged quilts and needlework pieces in Sotterley's manor house and outbuildings.

The appearance is one of tiny holes -- hundreds of squares of threads connected in intricate patterns that make lacy-looking angels or linens or tablecloths.The complexity and fine detail of Hardanger, this Norwegian needlework technique, may be its strongest appeal for 70-year-old Hilda Harvey, who has won awards for her precise and beautiful handiwork."Math is my field; that's probably why I do it," said Mrs. Harvey, a retired bookkeeper living in Ellicott City.Hardanger is a combination of about 10 styles of stitches, cutwork and weaving.

Rita L. Hawkins, 59, needlework artistRita Lenkin Hawkins, an accomplished needlework artist, died of cancer last Sunday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. She was 59.A native of Washington, Mrs. Hawkins attended Coppin State College as an undergraduate and later earned her master's degree there in education.Mrs. Hawkins worked as a dental technician, taught Head Start classes on an Indian reservation, led an alternatives-to-violence program at local prisons and acted in local drama groups.

E ight years ago, Jim and Barbara Hutson moved from Chesapeake, Va., back home to Maryland to be closer to family. "We couldn't afford the house we sold in Arnold [Maryland] in 1999," Jim Hutson said. "So we marched east until we found Queenstown." And there, just over the Kent Narrows Bridge in Queen Anne's County, they found the development of Wye Knot Farm. A Colonial-style house struck their fancy in October 2001. With finishing touches still incomplete, the Hutsons were able to choose kitchen cabinets and to request a cubby over the fireplace for a flat-screen TV. The couple paid $271,900 for the four-bedroom, 2 1/2 -bath, two-story home and moved in December of that year.

Thelma G. Reagan, who christened a Baltimore-built tank landing ship during World War II, died of kidney failure Saturday at her daughter's Riderwood home. The longtime Rosedale resident was 96. Born Thelma Conner in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown, she completed the eighth grade at Hampstead Hill Elementary School. As a young woman, she worked at the Crosse & Blackwell fancy foods plant. She worked in the production of mayonnaise. She met her husband, John E. Reagan, a master machinist, at a dance in Patterson Park.

Aletris R. Roland, a retired secretary and former Arnold resident, died of heart failure Sunday at Genesis ElderCare in Severna Park. She was 93. Born in Baltimore and raised on a farm in White Hall in northern Baltimore County, the former Aletris Roberts was a graduate of county public schools. She began her career as a secretary in the 1940s after graduating from Strayer Business College. She retired in 1975 from Westinghouse Electric Corp. after 25 years as a secretary there. Mrs. Roland was married for 23 years to Walter Hodges Roland, a construction worker, who died in 1976.

Alice Joy McCormick, a homemaker and antiques collector, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig's disease, Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 84. She was born and raised Alice Joy James in Newton, Miss., and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and speech from Baylor University in 1941. During the 1940s, she was a social worker for the Works Progress Administration and later sold yellow-pages advertising for Southern Bell Telephone Co. She met her future husband, Hugh P. McCormick Jr., while he was in college and attending a Baptist student retreat in North Carolina.

Bettye Fishbein, a homemaker and longtime active member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, died in her sleep Thursday at Ruxton Health and Rehabilitation Center in Pikesville. She was 94. She was born Bettye Berman in Baltimore and raised on East Fayette Street. She attended Eastern High School and worked as a seamstress in Baltimore's old Garment District before her 1930 marriage to Sidney W. Fishbein, a city high school teacher who died in 1993. The longtime Pikesville resident was a member for more than 45 years of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, where she was a member of the sisterhood and headed the temple's Braille book bindery.

"HONEY, I'M home!" says Michele Arsenault, owner of Stitching Pretty, the needle-crafts shop on Main Street in Laurel.But unlike the millions of people who announce their arrival to spouse or child with those words, Arsenault is referring to the warm welcome she receives from the Friends of Montpelier Mansion for the needle-crafts show that she produces each year.The Laurel mansion is a historic site -- a plantation dating from the 1780s.The Friends group conducts tours and helps furnish the mansion.