Amy Elizabeth Keys

Amy Elizabeth Maynard Keys passed away peacefully at home at the age of 91, surrounded by family, after a long illness.

She was born on December 10, 1921 at home in Lanham, Maryland. She lived less than 1500 feet from the place where she was born. Amy Jackson and William T. Maynard were her parents. Amy had a happy childhood enjoying horseback riding and the outdoors. Her parents, devout Roman Catholics, raised their children in their religion.

Amy was a tomboy and enjoyed spending time assisting her father in his wood shop and avoiding chores like feeding the chickens. Like all the Maynard children, she was taught to revere education, conduct herself properly, read voraciously, and treat her fellowman with dignity and respect.

In the 1920’s, no local parish existed to serve the needs of black Catholics. The residents of McCarthy, Glenarden, and Lanham had to travel to either St. Margaret’s of Scotland in Seat Pleasant or Holy Family in Woodmore to attend church. At the time, few families owned automobiles. They either walked or rode in a buggy or wagon pulled by a horse or mule. Amy’s father, an active Catholic and a member of the Knights of Columbus, and several other church members went to the Baltimore diocese to request the building of a new church in Glenarden, Maryland. Through their efforts and the assistance of the Josephite Fathers, St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church was built in 1922. It was one of the first black churches in the Washington, DC area.

Through the encouragement of both her parents and her Highland Park High School principal, Amy decided to pursue nursing as her career. Thus, her parents gave their written permission for her to attend Provident School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland.

While in her final year of nursing school, she met an x-ray technician who happened to work at Provident and Johns Hopkins Hospitals. That Baltimore native was named Romey Webster Keys. Amy graduated in 1941. After initially working at Provident Hospital, she returned to Lanham due to her father's illness and the intervention of World War II. Amy and Romey continued dating, and the couple was married in 1942 in Elkton, Maryland and in Washington, DC in civil ceremonies. Since her father wanted to ensure that their union was official, the couple was married once more at St. Joseph’s in Glenarden.

The first of their five children was born in 1944. Soon after the birth of their second child the young family travelled to Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa, for five years with the Public Health Service. In Liberia she like watching the whales off the coast and the tribesmen bringing their cattle to the Atlantic Ocean daily to bathe. She enjoyed long walks on the beach and attending diplomatic functions at the President’s Palace and the Liberian and American embassies. She belonged to a bridge club formed by embassy wives and home schooled her two young children.

Soon after their return to the States, the Keys Family built a home not 1500 feet from where Amy’s parents’ house stood, becoming one of the first families of the then new community of Carsondale. Following the construction of Route 50, she could look out of her kitchen window into that of her sister Lillian’s across the way.

After her return from Liberia and settling into her new home, Amy started working at Christ Child Farm in Silver Spring, Maryland. She stayed there for two and a half years. Next she applied to and was accepted at Prince Georges General Hospital, where she became the first black registered nurse supervisor on staff. Amy then went on to retire from first PG Hospital, then Glenn Dale Hospital, and finally Bethesda Naval Hospital, where she attended President Ronald Reagan. She lost her beloved husband, Romey, a year later in1987. Their marriage lasted for forty-five years. She then came out of retirement to do private duty nursing in the Washington area.

She drove to Iowa in 1994 to see her son graduate from the University of Iowa and prepare to enter University of Michigan Law School. In 1998, at the age of 77 she helped her daughter Charlotte drive across country for a new position in California. She was always on the road.

Until her stroke in 2007, Amy was active with the Provident Nurses Alumni Association and the Sodality at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, where she had been a member since 1931.

Amy always had time and a kind word for all. She was the one that everyone from relatives to strangers looked to for everything from a skinned knee to the passing of a loved one. Our Mother was a woman who lived her faith. She was steadfast and faithful to the end.

She was predeceased by her beloved husband Romey, her sisters Julia Maynard and Lillian Jones, her brother William Maynard, Jr., brothers-in-law Richard F. ”Plunky” Brown, Sr., Ignatius “Nacey” Jones, and William Keys, nieces Hazel Smith and Shirley Henson, as well as sisters-in-law Myrtle Maynard and Rita Maynard and son-in-law Willard R. Semple, Sr.

She is survived by her five children Margaret Keys Semple, Romey T. Keys, Amy E. Keys, Charlotte M. Keys, William T. Keys; two grandchildren Christopher A. Stewart and Julia L. Semple; six nieces Jacqueline A. Brown, Barbara Walker, Claudia Clayton, Cynthia Pannell, Diane Harper, Mary Brown Johnson; two nephews Richard F. ”Frankie” Brown and William T. Maynard, III; as well as 10 great nephews, 13 great nieces, and a host of loving family and friends.

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Mrs. Amy Elizabeth Maynard Keys, age 91, was born on December 10, 1921 and passed away October 12, 2013 after a prolonged illness. She was predeceased by her beloved husband Romey W. Keys, her parents Amy Jackson Maynard and William T. Maynard, sisters Julia Maynard Brown and Lillian Maynard Jones, brother William T. Maynard, Jr., brothers-in-law, Richard F. ”Plunky” Brown and Ignatius “Nacey” Jones, sisters-in-law Myrtle Maynard and Rita Maynard, as well as by two nieces Shirley Henson and Hazel Smith.

Mrs. Keys graduated from Provident Nursing School in Baltimore, Maryland in 1942. She was a registered nurse in Maryland and throughout the Washington Metropolitan area. She was the first black supervising nurse at Prince George’s County General Hospital, and retired from Prince George’s as well as from Glenn Dale Hospital and Bethesda Naval Hospital, where she attended President Ronald Reagan. She continued her nursing career as a private duty nurse attending several prominent patients in the greater Washington area.

She is survived by her five children Margaret A. Keys Semple, Romey T. Keys, Amy E. Keys, Charlotte M. Keys, William T. Keys; two grandchildren Christopher A. Stewart and Julia L. Semple; five nieces Jacqueline Brown, Barbara Walker, Claudia Clayton, Cynthia Pannell, and Diane Harper; and two nephews Richard F. “Frankie” Brown, Jr., and William T. Maynard III, as well as ten great nephews, thirteen great nieces, and a host of loving family and friends.

Viewing will be held at Robert Evans Funeral Home, 16000 Annapolis Road, Bowie, MD 20715 on Friday, October 25th from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM and from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Tributes and Life Remembrances may be made at the viewing.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Saturday, October 26th at 9 a.m. at University of MD Memorial Chapel.

Repast directly following the funeral service at Robert Evans Funeral Home.

Internment at Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery, 11301 Crain Highway, Cheltenham, MD, will be held on Tuesday, October 29th at 11:00 AM.

Gifts in her memory may be made to the Provident-Helene Fuld Nurses Alumni Association, P.O. Box 26484, Gwynn Oak, MD 21207 and Our Lady of Grace Sodality, St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, 2020 Saint Joseph Drive, Largo, MD 20774.