Audrey C. Pinkney
Retired Baltimore public schools educator and active volunteer a lifelong member of St. James Episcopal Church
Audrey C. Pinkney, whose teaching career in Baltimore public schools and as a counselor spanned more than three decades, died Nov. 18 of cardiovascular disease at her Lauraville home. She was 92.
“Audrey was just a great person who was very caring and helpful,” said former teacher Jeanne L. Robinson of Lauraville, who retired in 1983 from City College. “She was just a loving person.”
The former Audrey Christianna Bennett, the daughter of Robert Avon Bennett Sr., a postal worker, and his wife, Irene Julia Harris Bennett, a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Carey Street.
After graduating from Frederick Douglass High School in 1945, Mrs. Pinkney earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Coppin State University and a master’s degree in education from New York University. She also received a certificate in advanced education studies from the Johns Hopkins University.
Mrs. Pinkney began teaching Baltimore elementary school students in 1949 and later became a counselor at Hampstead Hill Junior High School. She retired in 1983.
Bernice J. Beaird, an Ashburton resident, was a longtime friend.
“We worked together, attend the same church and are members of the same sorority,” Mrs. Beaird said. “I was department chair for special education at Hampstead Hill. Audrey was a very personable and friendly individual. She was a people person and just a nice person to be around.”
She was respected by students, faculty members and administrators. “She had no problem engaging with students and did a great job as a counselor,” Mrs. Beaird said. “She had a very engaging personality.”
Mrs. Pinkney was married in 1960 to Thomas Arthur Pinkney, a postal supervisor, and together the couple enjoyed entertaining family and friends and sharing their home at holiday time. They also liked to travel and had visited Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.
Mrs. Pinkney was a lifelong communicant of St. James Episcopal Church and was thought to be one of the last of the original congregants to “walk over,” family members said, on Easter Sunday in 1932 from its former church at Park Avenue and Preston Street to its current church in Lafayette Square, formerly the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, whose congregation had moved to Middle River.
She served on its vestry, was a church greeter and was a member of its Rose Choir. She was also a Sunday school teacher and storyteller. She taught in the church’s Vacation Bible School.
“At church, she was a member of the St. Agnes Guild and St. Cecilia’s Guild,” Mrs. Beaird said.
Mrs. Pinkney was an active member of the Women’s Civic League and the Baltimore Symphony Associates. She also frequently assisted in local political campaigns.
Since her retirement, she volunteered at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Walters Art Museum, Reginald F. Lewis Museum and BSO’s Tiny Tots Symphony Concerts. She also volunteered with the St. Mark’s Soup Kitchen.
Mrs. Pinkney was a 61-year member of the Epsilon Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and through the years served on many committees as well as being chapter reporter, membership-atlarge delegate and ultimately “Golden Soror,” family members said. She enjoyed traveling to AKA’s biannual Boules conventions held across the country.
On Mondays, she volunteered at the local AKA clubhouse, where she participated in its Eating Together program.
Mrs. Pinkney was an inveterate theatergoer and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concertgoer. She also liked to read, view photography, play cards and collect clocks, nutcrackers and mirrors, as well as memorabilia from her various travels.
Her husband died in 2003.
Funeral services for Mrs. Pinkney will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at her church at, 1020 W. Lafayette Ave., Baltimore.
Mrs. Pinkney is survived by her brother, Robert A. Bennett Jr. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and numerous nieces and nephews.