Marion Dunbar Sterling died peacefully in her home in Compton on Saturday, April 9, 2011. She was 93 years old. Born in Baltimore on the first day of spring in 1918, Marion May Dunbar Sterling was the youngest child of Lucy May Beal and Paul Waldron Dunbar.

She spent her early years living in a row home in Baltimore where her father worked in the shipyards. When she was five years old, her family returned home to the First District in St. Mary's County, living on Timber Neck Farm in Dameron and later in St. Inigoes. She graduated from St. Michael's School in 1934.

She was a Registered Nurse, graduating from Georgetown University School of Nursing in 1945. She worked at St. Mary's Hospital, Newton D. Baker Veteran's Hospital in Martinsburg, WV and the Patuxent River NAS Hospital. She served in the Naval Reserve during World War II.

While in high school, she met a handsome young baseball player from Leonardtown who pursued her relentlessly until she finally agreed to marry him when he returned from Europe after World War II. On November 11, 1950, she married William O.E. Sterling, an attorney and later the first Judge of the St. Mary's County District Court. In 1952 they moved to Compton to the house she would call home for the rest of her life. She affectionately named it "Redbud Thicket," and spent the next 59 years there raising her family and tending her beautiful gardens. She also had a "winter home" in the Wildewood Retirement Village where she made many friends and enjoyed traveling with the group on their many local adventures. Her constant companion there was her Pembrooke Welsh Corgi, Bonnie Prince Charles of Redbud, better known as "Chuck."

Her talents were endless. She was an incredible cook. She made the best crabcakes and fried chicken in the world, and her "Blonde Brownies" were a favorite among the Sterling clan. An avid gardener, she could grow anything, anywhere, anytime, and specialized in Black Eyed Susans and English Boxwood which she cultivated herself. She was a proud supporter of the gardens at Tudor Hall and on St. Clements Island. She loved St. Mary's County and its history and spent many days as a docent at Historic St. Mary's City sharing her knowledge of the rich history of the mother county with school children from across Maryland. She traveled the world in her later years, but always said that her favorite trip was to England with a group from the St. Mary's County Historical Society where they visited Maryland's origins.

She was a member of St. Francis Xavier Church and helped stuff many a ham with the ladies for the Christmas bazaar. She was one of the founding members of the St. Mary's County Association for Retarded Citizens, now the ARC of Southern Maryland, and served on its Board of Directors for many years. Her love of local history was evidenced by her support of St. Mary's County Historical Society and many other local historical organizations.

Nothing was more important to her, however, than her family. She joins her husband and two of her children, William O.E. Sterling, Jr., and Lucy Ann Sterling, in heaven. Also waiting for her there were her siblings, Alexander "Buster" Dunbar, Paul "Dilly" Dunbar, Mary Edna Dunbar, and her big sister and best friend, Lucie Ann Abell.

She is survived by her two daughters, Christine Senese and Ruth Heinssen; her sons-in-law Gary and Bobby, and her daughter-in-law Judi Hewitt Sterling. She has nine grandchildren (Will, Tom, and Christina Sterling; Gary and Christopher Senese; Katherine and Michael Heinssen; and Scott Paul); and one great-grandchild, John Baylen Dean, who was the only one she ever let steal a bite of her crabmeat when she was picking crabs.

Her family will welcome friends at St. Francis Xavier Church in Compton from 5 until 8 PM on Tuesday, April 12, with prayers at 7 PM. A Mass of Christian burial will be held on Wednesday, April 13 at 11 AM, with interment to follow at St. Aloysius Cemetery in Leonardtown. Fr. Brian Sanderfoot will officiate and Fr. John Mattingly will co-officiate.

The family requests that memorial donations be made to the St. Mary's County Historical Society, P.O. Box 212, Leonardtown, MD 20650.

Arrangements provided by Mattingley-Gardiner Funeral Home, P.A.