Mary E. ‘Rae’ Speciale, businesswoman

Mary E. “Rae” Speciale, vice president of CIGAR-ette City Inc., a family-owned business, died Wednesday of complications after back surgery at the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. She was 73. The daughter of Charles McDaniel, a welder, and Helen McDaniel, a homemaker, Mary Evelyn McDaniel was born in Baltimore and raised on 36th Street in Hampden.

She attended city public schools and later earned a General Educational Development certificate in the 1980s from Harford Community College.

As a young woman, she was crowned Miss Hampden-Woodberry Poppy Queen, family members said.

Before her marriage to Frank Speciale, a businessman, in 1965, she worked in the early 1960s as a bindery worker at Joseph Ruzicka Inc., a company that had been established in Baltimore in 1758.

Mrs. Speciale became vice president of CIGAR-ette Inc., a Glasgow, Del., cigar shop owned by her husband.

A Bel Air resident, Mrs. Speciale enjoyed spending time with her family and grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Schimunek Funeral Home, 610 W. MacPhail Road, Bel Air.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by two daughters, Debra Gutridge of Bel Air and Christine “Tina” Montanarelli of Fallston; a brother, Kenneth McDaniel of Baltimore; two sisters, Kitty McDaniel and Susan Dudley, both of New Bern, N.C.; and five grandchildren.