Marie L. Brinsfield

away on July 9 at St. Agnes Hospital. She was 89.

Mrs. Brinsfield formerly lived in Ellicott City, where she was known for her award-

winning flower gardens and pursued this interest after moving to Charlestown. She

helped to maintain the community’s nature trail and assisted in creating an illustrated

catalog of the various wildflowers that flourished there. She eventually published a

collection of essays inspired by her natural surroundings. A self-taught artist, she

exhibited her work regularly, as well.

Mrs. Brinsfield was born in west Baltimore. She was a graduate of the Institute of Notre

and of Mount St. Agnes Junior College where she excelled in specialized medical

secretarial studies. After several years in that field, she became a certified professional

secretary and served as president of that group’s local chapter. After 25 years in the

business world, she returned to Mt. St. Agnes, by then a four-year college, to obtain a

bachelor’s degree. Attracted by the school’s theatre department, she participated in many

productions, both on stage and behind the scenes, there and at Loyola College and at the

Catholic University in Washington. Her interest in drama led her to the study of film and

she went on to produce several documentaries and oral histories featuring local

connections to World War II.

During the war, she married George Lehnert. After his military service, he joined the

fledgling Environment Protection Agency. He died in 1978. She married Lt. Col.

(retired) Jennings Brinsfield in 1988. He died in May of this year.

Survivors include a sister, Josephine McNulty Atwater of Catonsville, and nieces Mary

Atwater and Julia Atwater Andersen and her husband John, of Relay, as well as four

nephews: Thomas Atwater and his wife Carolyn of Springfield, Virginia; David Atwater

and his wife Jane of Denton; Ned Atwater and his wife Priscilla of Catonsville; and

Daniel Atwater and his wife Karin of Catonsville, as well as nine great nieces and a great nephew.

Visitation was held at the Sterling Ashton Schwab Witzke Funeral Home of Catonsville, Inc., 1630 Edmondson Ave., Catonsville, MD on Sunday, July 15, 2012, from 4pm to 6pm. A Mass of Christian Burial was held at the Our Lady of the Angels Chapel at Charlestown on Monday, July 16, 10am with a prior viewing at 9:30am. Interment Crestlawn Memorial Gardens. Friends wishing to remember Marie may contribute to the Institute of Notre Dame, 901 Aisquith Street, Baltimore, or to the Charlestown Retirement Community, 715 Maiden Choice Lane, Catonsville, MD.