Rosemary S. Sommer | Artist, volunteer, 76

Rosemary Schmidt Sommer, 76, formerly of Cherry Hill, an artist and community volunteer, died of complications from lung cancer April 11 at Durham (N.C.) Regional Hospital.

Mrs. Sommer graduated from Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls in Philadelphia and then worked as a secretary. In 1953, she married Herbert W. Sommer, whom she had met at a swimming pool in Juniata Park.

While raising three sons, she was active in the community and was president of the Junior Woman's Club in Cherry Hill, which established a free library in a storefront in the 1960s.

Mrs. Sommer built pierced-tin cabinets, and stenciled walls to complement her collections of antique kitchen implements and Americana. "Sometimes I feel as though I must have crossed the prairies in a covered wagon," she told a reporter in 1983 when her home was featured on a tour sponsored by the Friends of Barclay Farmstead, an organization she helped found. She chaired the Barclay museum shop committee, which supported the 1816 farmstead in Cherry Hill.

Mrs. Sommer was an accomplished seamstress and sold her theorems - stenciled paintings on velvet - in area shops. She and her husband enjoyed dancing on cruises, including in Egypt, Russia and Greece, where they survived a ship-sinking.

The couple moved to Sanford, N.C., in 1990.

In addition to her husband, Mrs. Sommer is survived by sons David, Andrew and Jeffrey and two grandchildren.

A Funeral Mass was said Friday at St. Stephen's Church in Sanford.