Florence Marie Barker Yarrison, born in Cumberland, MD, April 18, 1921, passed to the Lord quietly in her sleep after a short illness on the morning of Friday, May 16, 2014, in Solomons, MD, at the age of 93.

Florence was known throughout her life for her sharp and wry wit, a characteristic she maintained until very near the end. She grew up bright and athletic in West Baltimore, graduating from the old Forest Park High School in 1939, the oldest child of John Bernard Barker, originally of Port Deposit, MD, and Grace May Bowen Barker, originally of Bowens, Calvert County, MD.

Like both her parents, she graduated from Western Maryland College, taking her baccalaureate degree in mathematics. Part of the Greatest Generation, she began a career during World War II as a statistician at the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, where she met and married the love of her life, Raymond George Yarrison, in 1944. Together they had four children and she devoted herself to loving and caring for her entire family, including her parents and her brothers and their families.

She completely devoted herself to raising and educating her children, travelling with them to broaden their educations, and to showing them the world beyond Baltimore, an effort she continued through their high school years. At times during this period, she also worked as a substitute teacher and developed a lifelong affinity for winning at bridge. Following her children's graduations from college, and the death of her mother, she moved from Baltimore with her husband to Honolulu, HI, where they resided together until his death in 1980.

She remained in Honolulu for several more years, relocating to Leesburg, FL, in 1989, where she lived until age and incapacity forced her relocation to the Solomons Nursing Center in 2007, where she spent her final years.

She is survived and mourned by her four children, of whom she was very proud: James Lee Yarrison (Betsy), Martha May Heisey (Mel), John William Yarrison (the late Margaret George), and Harry Ray Yarrison, who devoted himself sacrificially to her care for the last decade of her life; six grandchildren: James Raymond, Mary Grace, and Emily Catherine Yarrison, Brandt Joseph and Daryl Joseph Heisey (Crystal), and Wayne Stuart Harding (Liz) and Christopher George Yarrison; two great-grandsons, Nathaniel Joseph Heisey and Wesley Shelton Harding, and her brother, Bernard Howard Barker (Shirley) of Chicago and his family.

She will be interred at the Druid Ridge Cemetery in Pikesville, MD. May God bless and rest her soul.

Arrangements provided by Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home.