Edith C. Daly

She combined careers in public relations, theater and television with passion for social justice and peace

Edith C. Daly, who had careers in public relations, theater and television and was also an advocate for social justice and peace, died Sept. 1 at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital after being stricken with a heart attack at her home at Green House Residences at Stadium Place. She was 97. The daughter of James Counahan, a builder, and Mildred Counahan, a Montessori School teacher, Edith May Counahan was born in Pittsburgh and spent her early years there before moving with her family to Newark, Del.

She was 17 when she graduated from Newark High School; she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1941 in English and theater from the University of Delaware.

“One of her first jobs was teaching in Milford, Del., during the Jim Crow era,” said a daughter, Rowena C. Daly of Towson’s Knollwood/ Donnybrook neighborhood.

“She remembered teaching in a fully stocked school for white children and then walking over to the AfricanAmerican school that was provided with no supplies,” Ms. Daly said. “It disgusted her. She spent her own money to provide art supplies to the children.”

After leaving teaching, Mrs. Daly enrolled at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where she earned a master’s degree in 1943 in costume design.

While in graduate school, she became engaged to a young man from a Greek family who joined the Army during World War II and was killed in action.

“She turned her grief into action,” her daughter said, when she enlisted in the Army at Fort Holabird, where she promoted USO shows and wrote newsletters.

After she was discharged in 1946 from the Army, where she had attained the rank of sergeant, she entered Catholic University of America on the GI Bill of Rights and earned a second master’s degree in1949 in set design.

“When she was in graduate school at CUA, she lived in a boardinghouse where she also took her meals. Other students who lived in the surrounding houses came only for meals,” wrote her daughter in a profile of her mother.

“One was an English student, getting his bachelor’s degree after five years of service in the South Pacific. His name was Bob Daly,” she wrote. “Whenhe started eating at the boardinghouse, he was at the opposite end of a very big table. As the semester progressed, he moved closer and closer until they were side by side.”

In 1948, she married Robert Joseph “Bob” Daly, who taught English in Chicago public schools. The couple lived in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood, and Mrs. Daly worked in the public affairs office of the University of Chicago Hospital.

In 1968, the couple and their eight children moved to a large home on Cedarcroft Road in Cedarcroft.

While her husband taught at the John Carroll School in Bel Air, she worked at the Johns Hopkins Press as an editor and later was in public relations for several area hospitals.

While working for the YWCAas director of communications from 1970 to 1979, Mrs. Daly was also host from 1971 to 1976 of “Women Now,” a talk show that aired on WJZ-TV.

“It was a very progressive show and featured ... segments on the National Organization for Women, divorce and even yoga. It was one of the first chat shows moderated by a woman in the country and took on groundbreaking issues,” her daughter said. “It’s what those shows are still striving to do today.”

From 1980 to 1985, Mrs. Daly was executive director of the Children’s Theater Association, which offered drama classes and toured hundreds of public and private schools with a professional troupe of actors.

While at the association, she also taught drama at Park School and was active in the local theater scene, designing sets for such groups as the Vagabond Players and Theater Loyola.

For a decade, until she retired in 1997, Mrs. Daly was administrative assistant to the director of the provincial of the Marianist Province of New York, which was then headquartered at the Marianist Provincial House in Baltimore.

“She was a delightful person, very artistic and overqualified for the job. She was a delight to work with,” said Brother Steve Glodak, who was the provincial in Baltimore and later Marianist Provincial of the U.S. in St. Louis.

“She was very quiet but assertive. When we had staff meetings, she was assertive in a very positive way. Her opinions were about how things could be done better and what she could contribute. She had a very critical mind.”

Mrs. Daly was also active in the Cedarcroft neighborhood association and supported Center Stage. She volunteered at Our Daily Bread and taught reading to illiterate women.

“From the day Our Daily Bread opened 36 years ago, she and my father made casseroles,” her daughter said.

Mrs. Daly was also active in the antiwar movement and supported social justice and the work of such people as Cesar Chavez, founder of the National Farm Workers Association.

“My parents were social activists and had very progressive values. She had a love for social justice and peace. She was feisty, determined, and expected independence and responsibility from her children,” her daughter said.

“When I was a kid, she took us to a demonstration at Wells Liquors in support of Cesar Chavez. I didn’t have grapes or iceberg lettuce until I was 18,” she said.

Mrs. Daly moved in 1998 to Highfield House on North Charles Street in Guilford, and five years ago to Green House Residences.

“During the Iraq War of 2003, she made a large sign that said ‘No War,’ and every rush hour she was out in front of Highfield House holding her sign,” her daughter said.

Mrs. Daly was an accomplished seamstress who made her own clothes. She also enjoyed quilting, painting and gardening. She painted landscapes and Cedarcroft street scenes in watercolors.

“It was not uncommon for her to be painting or gardening at 3 a.m.,” her daughter said.

Mrs. Daly supported four Roman Catholic parishes: St. Mary of the Assumption in Govans, St. Pius Xin Rodgers Forge, Corpus Christi in Bolton Hill and St. Vincent de Paul in the city.

“She loved babies. She loved raising a family. She loved art, theater and travel,” her daughter wrote. “She worked with passion. She prayed with faith and skepticism. She just kept going and going.” Her husband died in 1987. A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. today at St. Vincent de Paul, 120 N. Front St.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by three sons, Kevin R. Daly of Guilford, the Rev. Peter J. Daly of Washington and Christopher J. Daly of Palm Springs, Calif.; four other daughters, Maureen E. Daly and Brigid A. Casson, both of Charles Village, Deirdre M. Daly O’Neal of Naperville, Ill., and Brenda J. Maglich of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.; 13 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. Edith Daly was “disgusted” by segregated schooling in Delaware, a daughter said.