Marian A. Ayres, real estate professional

Marian A. Ayres, co-founder of a Fullerton real estate agency who enjoyed crafting and was a world traveler, died July 30 from heart failure at Oak Crest Village in Parkville. She was 94. The daughter of John Schafer and Clara Fitch, farmers, the former Marian Anne Schafer was born in Baltimore. She was one of eight siblings and was raised on her family’s farm at Belair and Joppa roads, which today is the site of the Double-T Diner.

She attended St. Joseph Roman Catholic parochial school in Fullerton.

During World War II, she worked in the gas mask department at the old Glenn L. Martin Co. plant in Middle River, where she met and fell in love with her future husband, Burton F. Ayres.

“They both worked in the same department at the Martin Co., and because they were wearing masks only saw each other’s eyes in the beginning,” her daughter, Carolyn Ayres, of Middle River, said with a laugh. They married in 1943. Mrs. Ayres went to work in the early 1950s for Baltimore County public schools as a salad maker in the North Point Annex. She later rose to cafeteria manager and worked at Gray Manor Elementary School and later at Dundalk, Woodlawn and Parkville high schools.

She stepped down from county public schools in the late 1960s.

She had developed an interest for real estate, and went to night school in 1968 at Parkville High School, earning her General Education Development diploma.

After earning her real estate license, she began working for Westview Realty in 1969 and became one of the top sellers in the Baltimore metropolitan area, which earned her many awards, her daughter said.

In 1979, she and her daughter established Marian Ayres Realty on Fitch Avenue in Fullerton.

The two-person agency expanded to include 29 agents and, in 1991, was purchased and merged into the White Marsh office of O’Conor Piper and Flynn.

Mrs. Ayres retired in 1995 and became a world traveler with her late son, Ron Ayres, who died in 2015.

She visited all 50 states, as well as Europe, South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The former longtime resident of Bowley Quarters and Sue Creek, who later moved to Oak Crest Village, also enjoyed making stained glass and ceramics.

Her husband of 37 years, who was a salesman for the H.J. Heniz Co., died in 1980.

A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday in the chapel at Oak Crest Village, 8820 Walther Blvd., Parkville.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by three grandsons.