Margaret Sparrow - Obituary

argaret Elizabeth Willis Sparrow, 88, died unexpectedly Aug. 27 in Annapolis. Born Aug. 21, 1919, in Baltimore, Mrs. Sparrow was the widow of C. Edward Sparrow Jr. and the daughter of the late Margaret Norris Willis and Charles Fountain Willis Jr., assistant superintendent of Baltimore City schools and director of Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. She graduated from Goucher College and received her master of arts degree in teaching on a Ford Foundation Fellowship from Johns Hopkins University. She retired as executive director for constituent leagues for the National League for Nursing in New York before returning to Baltimore in 1984. For many years she also was executive director for the Southwestern Connecticut Girl Scout Council. Before moving to New York in 1965 when her husband was transferred by Westinghouse, she was executive director for the Baltimore Council of the Camp Fire Girls. A lecturer and teacher of workshops in genealogy, she was very active in various historical and genealogy societies, serving as past president of the Maryland Huguenot Society, a board member of the Anne Arundel and Baltimore County Genealogical societies and the Women's Eastern Shore Society and a regent of the Colo. John Street Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter in Baltimore. She spent six weeks in France and Germany tracing Huguenot ancestors in 2000. Mrs. Sparrow was a member of the Daughters of Founders and Patriots as well as the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century and the Three Arts Club and Woman's Club of Roland Park. She was the author of "Memories of the Eastern Shore," "The Old Stone House," "Following the Huguenot Trail," "The Forest Home Academy," "Sailing Down the Chesapeake," "The Sparrows of Sparrow's Point," and others. A lifelong Republican, she ran for Baltimore City Council in the 1950s. An expert quilter, she restored antique quilts made in the 1800s by her husband's family members. She also was a master at bridge and was active with her husband in scouting all their lives. Surviving are her daughters, Dorothy Talmadge Sparrow of Yorktown, Va., and Constance Norris Sparrow of Annapolis; and one sister, Dorothy Willis McDonald of Leesburg, Va. Visitation will be from 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Kalas Funeral Home, 2973 Solomons Island Road, Edgewater. The funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Second Presbyterian Church, 4200 St. Paul St., Baltimore. Burial will be in Loudon Park Cemetery, Wilkens Avenue, Baltimore.