Ruth G. McElvany, doll collector

Ruth G. McElvany, a doll maker and collector, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Tuesday at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. She was 85.

The daughter of Alfred Guienot, a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. worker, and Ruth Guienot, a homemaker, Ruth Louise Guienot was born in Baltimore and raised on Ridgewood Avenue in the city’s Pimlico neighborhood.

She was a graduate of Western High School and worked for a time as a bank teller.

In 1943 she married Archie Welles McElvany, a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad worker.

Because of her husband’s railroad work, the couple lived for a time in DuBois, Pa., before moving in 1961 to Crestwood Road in the Idlewylde neighborhood of Baltimore County.

Mrs. McElvany owned and operated Rags of Idlewylde, a business she operated out of her home. She made Bermuda bags that were sold in local stores.

She also designed and sewed doll clothes that were sold by Joss of Stoneleigh and Minimakers Dollhouse in Timonium. She also had mail-order customers, family members said.

Mrs. McElvany was a collector of antique dolls. Among her favorites were Shirley Temple and Dionne Quintuplets dolls, according to a daughter, Michelle McElvany Hugue of Bowie.

Her husband, who died in 2013, had become a general manager of operations for CSX Corp.

In recent years, Mrs. McElvany was a resident of Brightview Mays Chapel Ridge.

Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Monday at Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home, 6500 York Road, Rodgers Forge.

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. McElvany is survived by another daughter, Melanie Robey McElvany of Orlando, Fla.; and a granddaughter.