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Gordia Lanman, 98, the wife of the late Rev. Harold Lanman, died June 7, 2012, of complications from a stroke at Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg. The Rev. Mark Derby officiated at service June 16 at Grace UMC in Gaithersburg.

"She and the Rev. Harold Lanman, retired and widowed, married in 1997, when she was 84 years old. He was her third husband. She and her first husband, Elmer Lee Arthur, married when she was 17. It was during the depression and Gordia worked at a factory in downtown Baltimore sewing men’s ties for 25 cents a dozen, said a granddaughter, Sarah Bernstein. “My grandmother spoke of how they felt lucky having 25 cents left over at the end of a week,” she said.

It was a marriage in the twilight of their lives. He died in 2008. “She had been married for a total of 63 years to three different but equally wonderful men," Bernstein said.

Born Allie Gordia Stout Aug. 7, 1913, in Hampden, the daughter of a fire insurance salesman and a homemaker. She completed the 10th grade in Baltimore's public schools and married Elmer Lee Arthur, an airplane mechanic, at age 17.

After World War II, she took a job with the Hochschild Kohn department store in Baltimore and worked there for 28 years, often at its complaint desk. She rose to become a manager of the downtown store before she retired in 1974.

After the death of her husband, she married John Donaldson, general manager of the Hochschild stores. He was a Mason and she became involved with the Order of the Eastern Star and its charities. He died in 1992 after they moved to Asbury Village in Gaithersburg.

She was active for many years at Pimlico Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday school and organized congregational breakfasts and dinners and later she belonged to Calvary Baptist in Towson and to Lovely Lane UMC in Baltimore, active with women’s groups in each congregation.

"I don't know what I'd do with my life if I weren't busy," she said in a 1988 Evening Sun article.

She was recognized for her extensive volunteer work. When she lived in Northwood, she was president of the Northwood Garden Club and raised azaleas. She also volunteered at the League for the Handicapped, serving twice as women's auxiliary president.

She was chairwoman of a fundraiser that she devised, an annual fur sale, which she ran for many years. The Fur Elephant Sale attracted many buyers who wanted to purchase donated fur coats and wraps. "There were lines around the block for the sale. She negotiated with the furriers, who donated coats but also cleaned and stored them," her granddaughter said.

In 1990, she was named the city's Woman of the Year by the Baltimore Commission for Women. She was also recognized in a Maryland House of Delegates and Senate resolution for her "outstanding volunteerism" in creating a top fundraising event.

In addition to her husbands, she was predeceased by her daughter, Betty Lee Moore, who died in 2002.

Survivors include four grandchildren.