Dayhoff Westminster

Dayhoff Westminster
www.kevindayhoff.city Address: PO Box 124, Westminster MD 21158 410-259-6403 kevindayhoff@gmail.com

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Mary Ellen Thomas "Tommy" Batten, US Navy veteran, 86 of Carroll County




Mary Ellen Batten
Born in Baltimore on Nov. 29, 1924
Departed on Mar. 14, 2011 and resided in Taneytown, MD.
Memorial Celebration:           Saturday, Mar. 19, 2011
3:00 pm
       
Please click on the links above for locations, times, maps, and directions.
                                              
Mary Ellen Thomas "Tommy" Batten, US Navy veteran, homemaker and Carroll County resident for more than 50 years, died on Monday, March 13, 2011, at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, of complications suffered in a fall at her home the day before. Mrs. Batten, 86, was married to the late Hugh N. Batten, Capt. USN (Ret).

Mrs. Batten was born November 29, 1924, in Baltimore, MD, the daughter of the late William Lewin Thomas and the late Mary Lavinia Bowen Thomas. She attended grade school in San Pedro, CA, and was graduated from New Windsor High School, as Valedictorian, class of 1941. She attended colleges at Western Maryland College, and was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1945.

In May 1945, she joined the U. S. Navy WAVES, and served as a Specialist (T) Link Trainer in Corpus Christi, and Kingsville, TX, until her honorable discharge in 1946.

Mrs. Batten was married on Feb. 14, 1946 at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi to Lt(jg) Hugh Nash Batten, USN, of Huntington, WV. During her next three decades as a Navy wife, she and Hugh had three sons and a daughter. Hugh's Navy career took them to more than 30 addresses, including at St. Simon's Island, GA; many locations in California from Coronado to San Lorenzo; Ford Island, Oahu, HI, and several locations in Maryland. In 1967, she and her husband moved to the farm in Taneytown that had been owned by Mrs. Batten's parents since 1946.

When her children were grown, Mary Batten obtained her Masters Degree in Crippling Conditions, Special Education, from Western Maryland College. In 1967, she set up a pilot program for educating handicapped children and taught in one of the first special education programs in Carroll County. She also taught English at Westminster High School between 1969. In 1971 she accompanied her husband to his NATO duty station in Oslo, Norway. Upon the conclusion of his two-year duty there, they returned to their Taneytown residence where they operated a cattle farm and became involved in community activities.

Throughout her life Mary Batten contributed her leadership and organizational skills in a wide range of charitable and service organizations, including Navy Relief and American Red Cross Grey Ladies. She was president of the San Francisco Bay Area Naval Officer' Wives Club, a Den Mother for Cub Scouts, and for more than 20 years served Girl Scouts as a troop leader, Summer Camp Director, and Board Member for Girl Scouts of Central Maryland.

She also served as Board Member for numerous organizations, including Montgomery County Shelter Workshop, Carroll County Retarded Association, Union Mills Board of Directors, Carroll County Farm Museum, and American Association of University Women. She was Past President for the Woman's Club of Westminster, and the Sir George Calvert Chapter of Colonial Dames of the 17th Century. She was an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, serving as Regent of the William Winchester Chapter and several State level offices. She also served as chair for various committees for Cancer and Heart related organizations, for UNICEF, and other volunteer projects.

Mary Batten taught Sunday school, organized the first Sunday school at the St. Edmund's Anglican Church in Oslo, Norway, and was Sunday school superintendant at Ascension Church in Westminster.

Mary Batten spent many hours gardening, creating beautiful gardens at her home in Taneytown with assistance of her son Chris, a landscape architect. He interests also included reading and writing. Beginning in high school, she edited a wide range of news letters and publications, was a published author of short stories, a devoted letter-writer, and was working on a historical novel at the time of her death. She was a voracious reader of fiction and history, and a frequent customer and strong advocate for libraries and the Taneytown Library in particular. She enjoyed entertaining, and gained a reputation for planning and hosting hundreds of elegant and fun social affairs for friends and family.

Mary Batten is survived by her brother William Lewin Thomas, Jr., of New Windsor; her sister Diane Perry of Taneytown; and her four children: Hugh Nash Batten, Jr, of San Clemente, CA; Bruce Thomas Batten, of Eagle River, AK; John Christopher Batten of Taneytown; and Mary Lavinia Batten, Anchorage, AK. She has six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

A Memorial Celebration will be held for Mary Ellen Thomas Batten in the Great Hall of the Church of Ascension, Westminster, at 3pm on Saturday, March 19, 2011. The family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Mary Batten's name to the Carroll County Public Library, Taneytown Branch.                                                                   


Mary Ellen Thomas "Tommy" Batten, US Navy veteran, 86 of Carroll County
http://www.hartzlerfuneralhome.com/_mgxroot/page_10776.php
*****
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