Mary Elizabeth "Libby" Stoops Obituary (1922

Mary Elizabeth "Libby" Stoops, 91, a resident of the Hillsboro community passed away on Saturday July 26, 2014 at the Harmony Guest Home in Hillsboro, Oregon. A funeral mass will be said in her honor for family and friends at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 9 in Sacred Heart Catholic Church on High Street in Chestertown, MD. Refreshments will be served in the church hall following the service. She will be interred in a smaller service for relatives at Bond Chapel Cemetery in Pomona at 3 p.m. the same afternoon. Libby was born on December 3, 1922 in Baltimore, Maryland, the fifth of nine children born to Andrew and Regina (Mueller) Goss. Raised in Baltimore, she attended Seton High School. After high school Libby began working as a bookkeeper. During World War II, she worked in a Glenn L. Martin bomber plant. She met Louis C. McFadden in 1942 and they married in September 1943 in Baltimore. In 1946, their son, Bruce, was born. In 1958 they divorced. Louis died in April 1965. In February 1966 Libby married family acquaintance Joseph Grabenstein and moved to Chestertown, Maryland. Libby and Joe celebrated 17 years together until Joe died in early 1983. In mid-1984 she married her lifelong friend, James Clarke Stoops, Jr., a native of Chestertown, with whom she enjoyed more than 12 happy years, until his death in 1997. Libby lived at Cliffs City, south of Chestertown, for nearly 46 years until she moved to Hillsboro to live with her son. Libby was a loving and devoted mother. She held herself to very high standards for behavior, competence, manners, proper speech, and appearance, and encouraged Bruce to do the same. She also instilled high goals for education and accomplishments. As the primary provider for the family, she worked very hard and managed her money with exceptional skill through very lean, difficult times for many years. She was a superb example of determination, perseverance, inner strength, independence, mastering what she put her mind to, kindness to others, and compassion. Her elegant dress and composure became her recognizable trademark, despite always living on a very limited budget. Blessed with an excellent head for numbers and exceptional meticulousness, Libby spent her 47- year working career as a bookkeeper, and, later, a banker. Over the years she spoke fondly of Regional Management, her favorite employer, which she admired for its high quality standards. When she moved to Chestertown Libby worked as the head teller in a bank and twenty-one years later she retired as the Assistant Branch Manager. More than two decades after she retired, she delighted in being greeted by former bank customers. Libby was known for her lifelong interest in sewing, crafts, and other "homemaking arts." Blessed with a fine eye for beauty and quality, extraordinary skill for making things, but faced with very limited means, Libby diligently made what she could not afford and sought value and beauty where she could. She sewed clothes, including her wedding dress and an elegant coat, draperies, slipcovers and crafts with refined skill and meticulous attention to detail. Her home was always spotless, neat, organized, and attractively decorated, reflecting her personal mantra, "quality, not quantity." She loved music and fine art. For many years, she often listened to the New York Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast. Even after moving to Chestertown, Libby enjoyed attending the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and visiting the Walters Art Gallery. With Clarke she often sang while he and a friend or family member played various types of music. She was thrilled to see the Louvre in Paris when she visited with her son. Libby's kind heart and compassion for others was apparent in her long "other career" as a volunteer. Libby served as a Cub Scout Den Leader when her son was young. And starting in her fifties, she volunteered at a mental health facility and for the Salvation Army. For the Salvation Army, she served as their treasurer and bookkeeper in Kent and Queen Anne counties for over a quarter century; she kept books for the Salvation Army in Baltimore; and she and Clarke escorted disadvantaged children to Salvation Army summer camps in West Virginia. She was a member of the Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary in Baltimore for two decades and for fifteen years after retirement Libby drove to Baltimore twice a week for volunteer work. She led their major fundraising event for two years, setting records both times. She was elected vice president, then president. She received their Award of Excellence and was invited to speak at their national meeting in Minneapolis. The Salvation Army honored her for her dedication: she was once chosen "Volunteer of the Year" for the Maryland-West Virginia region and a year or two later, she was named one of the Top Twenty Salvation Army volunteers for the entire Southeastern United States. For several years she taught reading to young inner city children at a Boys and Girls Club in Baltimore. In addition, she kept the books for the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, served as a Lector at Sunday masses, was an elected member of the Parish Council and was its secretary for many years. Barely traveling outside Maryland before age thirty-two, by age eighty she had seen nearly all of the East Coast from Maine to Florida, most Midwestern states, Houston, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Portland, Oregon. And despite a fear of flying, she visited her son in Toronto, Caracas, Venezuela, and Antwerp, Belgium, travelling with him to the Netherlands, Germany and France. Libby enjoyed family gatherings and, with her excellent knowledge of her family's history, was a sought after source of information. Her three husbands, Louis, Joseph and Clarke, and six siblings preceded her in death. Survivors include her son and daughter-in-law, Bruce and Cheryl McFadden, of Hillsboro, OR, four grandchildren; Jennifer (Douglas Balog), Claire, Alex and Karl and three great grandchildren; Jane, Michael and Mae Balog of Pittsburgh. Her two surviving siblings are Robert Goss of Colesville, MD, and Mary Louise Bockstie of West Chester, PA. Many nieces and nephews and other members of her extended family will remember "Aunt Libby" fondly. She is also remembered by two of Joe Grabenstein's sons in Florida, William and Walter, and Walt's spouse, Eileen, and their families. The family suggests donations in Libby's name to the Salvation Army in Kent and Queen Anne Counties, Maryland.