Shirley Hooper, sales associate, homemaker

Shirley Wingo Hooper, a sales associate in a women’s clothing shop and a homemaker, died of stroke complications Nov. 10 at Pickersgill Retirement Community. The former Ruxton resident was 89.

Born Shirley Wingo in Virginia and raised in Gordonsville and Richmond, Virginia, she was the daughter of Leslie Allen Wingo, a banker, and his wife, Kathryn Belton. She moved to Baltimore in the 1930s and was a 1949 graduate of Roland Park Country School, where she also attended the lower school.

Beginning in the 1960s she worked at the Wilmington Country Store in Ruxton. Family members said she often brought her German shepherd Eva to work.

She once thwarted a robbery there when she adamantly refused to give up her purse when a gunman entered the store. When she loudly threatened to call the police, he fled.

In 1970 she married Dr. Joseph Hooper, a general surgeon, who practiced at Union Memorial Hospital and Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

She accompanied her husband on fishing and scuba diving trips. She prepared the waterfowl her husband shot. They vacationed at Quimby Lodge in Vermont and in the North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Mrs. Hooper was a member of the Mount Vernon Club and the Johns Hopkins Club.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Fridayat the Church of the Good Shepherd at 1401 Carrollton Ave. in Ruxton.

Survivors include a stepson, Joseph Hooper of New York City; two stepdaughters, Cricket Hooper Jiranek of Old Greenwich, Connecticut, and Brent Hooper Moore of Ruxton; a sister, Kathryn Watson of Catonsville; and four step-grandchildren. Her husband of 40 years died in 2010. Her earlier marriage ended in divorce.