Lillian May (Gelsinger) Hemphill

Devoted mother of Brenda Hemphill Stone (husband Dan Watson) and Gary P. Hemphill (wife Janice). Dear sister of Anna Gelsinger Smith. Loving grandmother of Michael W. Stone, Laura S. Ellis (husband- Brian). Great grandmother of Sean, Aidan and Quinn.

Lillian May Gelsinger was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania on November 24, 1919 to a rather poor farming family headed by Charles Gelsinger and his wife Bertha.  Lillian, the third, had four brothers and two younger sisters.  The family was never prosperous, but the depression era was especially difficult.  It had to be in those years that Lillian learned from her mother how to stretch a single chicken into a week’s worth of meals.

Lillian attended Chambersburg High School, Class of 1937; she remained attached to many old friends from those days throughout her life, attending class reunions right up until she became immobilized.

After high school she worked for a year in Chambersburg sewing seams into the back of nylon stockings in order to save up money to attend nursing school.  She then enrolled in the nursing program at Washington County Hospital School of Nursing in Hagerstown, MD.  She graduated in the spring of 1941.   She stayed quite close to her nursing school classmates, in particular  “Pill” Smith and Charlotte Horst.

During her years in nursing school Lillian met Harold Hemphill, a colorful young swain who lived in Hagerstown.  Disregarding stringent rules, she and Harold eloped (along with her roommate and her roommate’s boyfriend) and went together to Baltimore for a weekend in October of 1940.  (Had she been found out before graduation 8 months later, her professional career could have been jeopardized.)

With the War on, Harold and Lillian moved to Baltimore so Harold—a young man with many hands-on skills--could work as a welder at the Bethlehem Shipyard building Liberty Ships for the war effort.  (The ship John Brown, afloat in Baltimore harbor, is a rare existing example.)  They lived at first in rental apartments in West Baltimore we assume, but at some point rented a two-floor apartment in a row house at 13 Enjay Avenue, now inside the Beltway in Catonsville.  This is the first home that Brenda remembers.  After the war, Harold worked at the nearby Westinghouse plant.

Brenda was born in June 1944, and Gary in April 1948.  As far as we know, Lillian (with 2 little kids) for a short while was a hardworking stay-at-home mother, while Harold ground it out as a plantworker.   But meanwhile, as an inveterate collector of things from youth until his dying day, Harold also assembled a collection of over 100 wall clocks and grandfather’s clocks. Brenda remembers that they ALL were wound and set, and struck the hour regularly in their little apartment.

In the early ‘50s, with Lillian’s support, Harold sold off his entire clock collection to fund the family’s independence, starting Colonial Metalcrafts—which was sort of Catonsville’s “village blacksmith shop” on Winters Lane.

In 1958, the family moved from Enjay Avenue to 103 Glenrae Drive. It was the first house occupied on Glenrae—before anyone thought of an “occupancy permit”.  The street was unpaved for months, and the family got over the mud and into the house via 2”x10” planks.   This, of course, is the home that everyone associates with Harold and Lillian, where backyard cookouts, Christmas and New Years extravaganzas, clubroom card parties, and meals with many guests around a too-small table always made for great fun!  And it was the happy home in which both Harold and Lillian passed away, in 1990 and 2015 respectively.

Lillian was a vibrant, hard working, highly organized, fun-loving and fun-giving woman.  These are among the many things we remember:

She was (of course!) the “Sunshine Girl” for the Women’s Circle at the Catonsville Presbyterian Church, where she was active until she couldn’t be.
She basically did all the work around 103 Glenrae, including mowing the lawn and shoveling snow.  Harold did not put chains on the car when snow came, ‘cause he “might have a heart attack”.  Lillian did that instead.
Lillian laid out Harold’s clothes every day, including his work khakis.  And if they traveled anywhere, she packed his bag.
After Gary started school, Lillian went to work as the School Nurse at “The Rolling Road School” (a County facility for disabled kids)…. and she broke new ground with a then-unique “job sharing” arrangement with another nurse, splitting the job.
She was the on-call neighborhood doctor, nurse, and medical consultant for most families and kids on Glenrae Drive for many years.
Through the early ‘60s by necessity, and thereafter by force of habit, Harold and Lillian were, let’s say, never big spenders…. but fun (as in a table cloth luau outfit) was always an objective

In 1974, Lillian became “Lillybelle”, a green haired Clown who first performed at her Granddaughter Laura’s second birthday party.  She took her act on the road to nursing homes and church events for many years (partnering with another lady–clown from the Church, Ellen Tharpe), and for a while she drew her two grandkids, Laura and Michael, into those routines.
Lillian cared for many friends with terminal illnesses.
For about a decade in the ‘50s and into the first years of the ’60s, Lillian served each summer as the Major Domo (but feminine) at “Anchors Away”, a friend’s large summer house on the Magothy River with an 8-bedroom guest lodge in her charge.  Lillian ran the operation like a drill sergeant ...except she made sure everyone had FUN.
Lil also became a second Mom to Dan Watson (who started visiting 103 Glenrae in 1961 and married Brenda in ‘66) and Janice Miliner, who Gary married in 1990.
Lillian and Harold were both dog people, but Lillian went further:  for a number of years she took her sweet golden retriever Sarah to nursing homes with “Pets on Wheels”.
When Lillian’s grandchildren, Laura and Michael came along, she naturally became the perfect grandmother spending many, many evenings, weekends, and sometimes entire weeks caring for the kids so that Brenda and Dan could do one thing or another.  (Harold ought not to be thought of as a ‘help” in this respect, as much as another ornery kid to look after.)  And through her childcare, Lillian deserves considerable credit for Brenda completing her Master’s degree program!
Flash forward 30 years: Lillian became a 3-time Great-Grandmother.  She decided to underwrite--and enjoy immensely--an annual week at the ocean with these new little guys and the rest of the family as well...and this went on for 6 or 7 years in a row.  Nothing gave her greater pleasure in her latter years than being with Sean, Aidan and Quinn whenever she could.
One day Lillian decided that her new police officer grand-son-in law, Brian Ellis, would be safer if he had Lasik surgery instead of wearing glasses or contact lenses.   A woman of action, she insisted on paying for it, and that it be taken care of right away.

Harold passed away in 1990, soon after Lillian celebrated a big 69-3/4 surprise birthday party that many remember.  She mourned Harold, but remained full of life herself, and in the fullness of time had 3 gentlemen callers at her door—each at a regular but different point in the week—plus another gentleman friend who drove her to church.

Always in good health, Lillian seemed to have encountered the first of many small strokes around 2007.  Changes were not sudden, but they repeated and the damage accumulated over the months and years.  She had always expressed her keenest desire to remain in her own home for as long as possible, and blessed with the results of Harold’s successful investing in the market (he was a very smart guy!), she was able stay there throughout.

Through good luck and the blessings of angels, in 2009 the most remarkable caregiver—Ms. Coral Escobar, originally of Guatemala—arrived in our lives and essentially adopted Lillian as a second mother.  Certainly no one could take more heartfelt and diligent care of Lillian than did Coral, 24 hours a day from Monday morning through Saturday morning.   Other remarkably caring women— Bedia Bilal-Gary, Rosa Melvin, and Tayvon Turner joined “Lillian’s Team” and for years did 110% of what anyone could do to make her now much narrowed life just as safe and healthful as possible.  (On Lillian’s passing this last Saturday evening, they all came to be with her, and shared together their memories of the Lillian they had known, and spoke of the things she had taught each of them through her fortitude.)

In addition, Gilchrist Hospice helped to care for Lillian in her home in 2012 until her health improved and then again for the last 3 weeks of her life.

Lillian, so many of us owe to you so much love and gratitude for the unceasing joy and love and laughter you gave us over the years.  Long will you be remembered.

Your devoted family.

April 2015