Althea Millicent Feller

Life of Althea Feller (1917-2009) Althea Millicent Feller lived a long and extraordinarily colorful life spanning several continents and historical events, during which she graced many friends and relatives with her elegant and kind presence. She died at the age of 93 in Laurel, Maryland. Her story begins in Calcutta, India, in 1917, where she was born. Her parents were Percy William and Iris Millicent (née Barber) Bayford, both of whose families were originally from England. Althea was the fourth generation born in India on her mother's side and third generation on her father's side. Her father was an engineer and member of the Masons. And her maternal grandfather was a railroad engineer. She had two younger brothers, William and James ("Jim"), who were one year and five years younger than she was, respectively. William joined the Palestine Police Force, an elite branch of the British Foreign Service. In 1940 he succumbed to meningitis and was buried in Jerusalem. During WWII, James served as an officer in the Indian Army in several theatres. After the war, he married Kathleen Stewart, and they had four children, Robert, Stewart, James, and Anne. After a period in Malaya, the family returned to England for several years, and then moved permanently to Australia where James later died and Kathleen (remarried to Roy Morey) and the children and their families still live. Her father returned to India before the war, where he stayed until Indian independence in 1949, after which he moved to England where he remarried and lived in Bristol. In India Althea attended the Dow Hill School, a boarding school in West Bengal, located in view of Mt Everest in the strikingly beautiful Darjeeling region in the Himalayan foothills. Her brothers attended Victoria School, the affiliated boy's school. She often reminisced about the now famous and still operational narrow gauge "toy train" that climbed an extreme grade from the plains to the hill region. When she was 12, her mother unfortunately died of an infection, which was a difficult blow for her. At Dow Hill she became senior prefect and completed her Senior Cambridge exams. In 1938 she traveled with her father and brother William to England, where she stayed through the end of WWII. In London during the war, she worked as an assistant to the director of the Mosquito fighter/bomber program at the de Havilland aircraft company. In London, she met and became engaged to an American serviceman, Wilmer Ray Baughman, who was working in communications in the central Allied headquarters. Althea and Ray settled in the US following the war and began their new life together in Ray's hometown, Jennerstown, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. There, they opened a small shop, Ray's Pantry, and had a son, Robert William Baughman, in 1947. Sadly, two years later, Ray passed away from hepatitis contracted from a blood transfusion he received while in the service, and he was buried in Jennerstown. Another chapter of Althea's life soon began when she met "Doc" (Emmett Edward or E.E.) Feller. Doc was a civil engineer, who had worked on the Cape Cod Canal, Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, and military facilities in Trinidad & Tobago in WWI, and who was staying locally in Jennerstown while operating his coal mining business, the E. E. Feller Coal Co. Each morning, he would have breakfast at Althea's shop. He had one college-aged son, Harold Feller, who later with his wife Beverly had two children, Mark and Carrie, and lived in New York and Chicago. Althea and Doc were married in 1952 and celebrated their honeymoon in New York City, a moment captured in her cherished photo of her and Doc dining at the Stork Club at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. They went on to spend the next 43 years together, until Doc died in 1995. Althea, Doc, and Bob then moved to Johnstown, Pennsylvania and then in 1962 to Fort Pierce, Florida where they began to enjoy retirement. In the late 1960's, they moved to Tucson, Arizona, which would become Althea's favorite home. She loved nature, reflected by the extensive periods she and Doc spent visiting National Parks and hiking in the deserts of Arizona, especially in Saguaro National Park near their home. With Doc, she traveled widely throughout the world, including Europe, Russia, Greece, Egypt, Australia, and in particular Mexico and Central America, where she and Doc traveled every winter for more than 20 years with many exciting adventures. She spent her last decade in Maryland on the east coast, where she established new friends, reconnected with old friends, and became closer to her son and his family. She continued to be remarkably active with her book clubs, crossword puzzles, and daily walks until this past year when she began struggling with increasing complications from heart failure. Despite her medical setbacks, she always continued to maintain her humor and grace. Althea's life was marked by international travel, rich with history, having lived through WWII and the independence of India. With her cosmopolitan and British upbringing, she was an elegant woman. She remained down to earth and socially aware and continued to donate to various charities even when she could hardly afford her medical bills. Throughout her life she read widely and often met with others in book clubs and discussion groups. She was in close correspondence via letters and telephone with her relatives and friends, scattered throughout the world. And she will always be remembered by these same friends and family as a delightful and graceful woman with concern for others and a deep appreciation of the natural world. She is survived by her son, Robert Baughman, his wife, Hidemi, and their son and daughter, Kenneth and Amy; her stepson, Harold Feller, his daughter Carrie, and his two grandchildren; and her sister-in-law Kathleen Morey, and her children and their families.