Marian Ramona Tracy Bittle (August 9, 1928 – May 14, 2025) entered her remarkable life in the home of her maternal grandparents’ in Hosterman, where they had a general store and ran a post office.
Marian resided in Hosterman with her mother and sister, Helen, until she was six years old. When she was about six years old, the trio moved to her paternal grandparents’ farm in Boyer, where she remained until college. As a child she admired Shirley Temple and loved to sing and dance. She convinced her father to buy her a piano and pay for piano lessons, which she continued through high school. She enjoyed all aspects of music in her community, and was an active member of 4-H, hand-raising sheep and completing various projects for the state and county fairs. After high school, where she played the flute in the band, she attended WVU, where she led various choral groups and represented her dorm in the “Miss West Virginia University” pageant. She graduated with a degree in music, after which she applied for a music teaching position with the Garrett County, Maryland, Superintendent of Public Schools, Foster David Bittle. She was invited to join the superintendent and his wife, Goldie, at their home for lunch, where the Bittle’s son, Bob, happened to be mowing the lawn.
Marian and Bob both considered Marian’s interview with Foster as the luckiest day of their lives. She and Bob, then a WVU graduate student in Chemical Engineering, began dating (and she also got the job as a teacher in Grantsville). On September 15, 1950, the couple eloped and were wed by Marian’s Uncle Lanty, in Ellerslie, Maryland. They took up residence in a second-floor apartment in Frostburg, using cardboard boxes for furniture, and then they bought a house on “A” Street in LaVale, furnishing it with the proceeds of war bonds that Bob had bought during World War II while he served in the Navy in the Pacific. After their son, David, was born, they outgrew the A street house and built a house on Warfield Place where they welcomed son, Mark, and much to his mother’s exasperation, David promptly showed his little brother how to escape from the crib. Daughter Lisa came along later, giving Marian a reprieve from being the only female in the house.
As a young homemaker and Suburbanite, Marian channeled her love of music and her Savior into singing and directing choirs, first at Saint Mark’s Reformed Church, and then at Saint John’s Lutheran Church, both in Cumberland, Maryland. She was selected to be the Director of Music of Christ Lutheran Church in LaVale, where she, Bob, Mark and David were charter members. For more than 35 years, she directed vocal choirs (adult, youth and children’s) and together with Rita Burton, Alice Firey and Gail Dawson, formed and directed three handbell choirs. She had a keen ear for potential talent and was a relentless recruiter, keeping the ranks of the choirs fully populated with members (in addition to the family con- scripts). She was an excellent teacher and molded many raw enlistees into musicians. Her welcoming spirit and genuine interest in other people also led to many new members joining the church over several decades. Her leadership skills were reflected in her roles as President of the Music and Arts Club and Chairwoman of its Scholarship Committee, Membership Chairwoman of the Community Concert Association, Historian of the Maryland Federation of Music Clubs, Director of the Memorial Hospital Nursing Home Chorus, Chairwoman of the annual Junior Choir Festival, and many church activities including the Joy Group. She was recognized for her accomplishments and named Citizen of the Month by the Suburbanite. For many years she gave private piano lessons in her home to children living in the area.
Like many of her generation, Marian was skilled in the domestic arts. She and Bob were prodigious gardeners, and Marian processed the resulting fruits and vegetables each season, canning and freezing almost every consumable fruit and vegetable imaginable, all in a steaming kitchen without air conditioning. In her later years, Marian was drawn to growing flowers, particularly dahlias, some of which were descended from her late mother’s garden in Boyer, and others given to her by neighbor and friend, Ivan Hall. In addition to gardening, Marian was a talented seamstress, sewing curtains, clothing and quilts, and teaching her children to sew and mend (including darning socks, a skill which Mark displayed to her dismay one Sunday while she was directing the choir). Always eager for a challenge, when the winter road salt caused the family cars to rust, she enrolled in an auto body course, and rebuilt the damaged parts of the quarter panels.
Marian’s hobbies over the years included bowling, tennis and golf. She enjoyed cooking and experimenting with recipes, old and new. She was a beautiful dancer, and she and Bob cut quite a figure on the dance floor during their 50th wedding anniversary party. She took up watercolors in her 80s, and one of her paintings, “Lillium,” won Best in Show in the Western Maryland Watercolor Society’s annual Spring Show in 2012.
Marian loved to travel, beginning with a family road trip cross country in 1939 in the family Chevy, and then a few years later as a teenager, traveling to Canada for an international 4-H convention. When the children were younger, the whole family would head out to beaches and lakes with a pop-up camper. After retirement, she and Bob were free to roam, and their adventures included Germany and Hawaii. Later, Mark took her to the island of Mustique, and she and Lisa went on a mother-daughter trip to Paris, where Lisa very nearly lost her in the airport.
Marian believed that a knowledge of family history was vital. In order to ensure that the next generation knew the family lore, every Memorial Day involved back-roads’ travel to remote cemeteries, to tend to graves and honor the ancestors. She and Bob were avid genealogists before records were available on the internet, and their painstaking research brought their families’ histories to life.
Above all, more than anything, Marian was devoted to the Lord. She actively chose, every day, to do what she believed the Lord wanted her to do. She lived her life with purpose and love. No one ever said better prayers. She cherished her family, friends and neighbors. Many dear friends, neighbors and assistants helped her with groceries, doctor visits, errands, mail and other household tasks, from filling the birdfeeders to taking out the trash, all of which allowed her to stay in her home of more than 70 years, where she was happiest.
Marian was predeceased by her husband, Robert David Bittle; parents, Glenn and Alma Vera Bly Tracy; sister, Helen Tracy Loman; niece, Jina Ramona Eckhardt; and grandson, Travis Benjamin Bittle.
She is survived by her son, Robert David Bittle, of Roanoke, Virginia, Mark Tracy Bittle (Holly), of Charlottesville, Virginia, and Lisa Bittle Tancredi (Michael Aronoff), of Baltimore Maryland. She is also survived by David’s children, Logan (fiancé Selena) and Tyler Bittle; great-granddaughters, Rhya and Luna Bittle; Mark’s children, Emma and Rose Bittle; and Lisa’s children, Chris and Matt Tancredi; nephew, John Jones (Donna); and great-niece, Jessica; as well as her nephews James (Jan), Thomas, Terrence and Brian (Julianna) Sparks; and great- nieces-and-nephews, Abby, Trish, Charlotte, Mac, Ellie, Ryan, Jamie, Esther and Nora.
Funeral service and burial were at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Myersville, Maryland.
Memorial donations may be made to Christ Lutheran Church, 1222 Vocke Road, LaVale, MD 21502 to support its monthly Reach Meal.
