Kitty Washburne, former headmistress of The Bryn Mawr Lower School, was an innovative educator

Wayne Reynolds was always thrilled when he saw Katharine “Kitty” Washburne heading toward his art studio on a golf cart. They’d share a walk around the pond and a deep conversation — and maybe some chocolate chip cookies.

Reynolds, 73, started renting the studio on Washburne’s Owings Mills property almost six years ago. He couldn’t have predicted the friendship he’d form with his nonagenarian neighbor. She was a former educator who loved learning, always had a story to swap, and bestowed wisdom like no one he’d met before.

“I felt like I was half student and half teacher, and she was all teacher and all student,” Reynolds said. “She just soaked up whatever the conversation was.”

Reynolds cherishes those talks now that his days have grown quieter. Washburne, who spent 14 years as headmistress of The Bryn Mawr Lower School and was an avid gardener late in life, died Feb. 19 of complications from a spinal infection. She was 97.

She was born May 20, 1928, the eldest child of H. Benthall and Frances Marshall. She grew up with two brothers on a farm in Baltimore County and attended Garrison Forest School. She spent her childhood milking cows and tending to horses with her family.

She was so interested in education that she pursued her bachelor’s degree at a teacher’s college in New York. She wanted to attend the University of Alaska, but her parents said no. In any case, she was eager to explore a world outside the one she’d known for 18 years.

“She had the wanderlust,” said her daughter, Frances Washburne.

After finishing her undergraduate education, she moved west and taught in California and Washington. She was fired from her first teaching job and talked about it often — not because losing her job was fun, but because “it was a good experience to be fired,” recounted her son, Thomas “Tuck” Washburne. “You take your lumps, you pick up and you move on.”

She then returned to Baltimore to teach middle school at her alma mater. Around this time, she met Thomas Washburne Sr. through mutual friends. He was a recent law school graduate and clerking for a federal judge in Baltimore.

When they first met, Washburne Sr. joked that “I would take you out if you didn’t live so far out in the country.” She’d reply, “Don’t break your neck.”

He eventually decided it wasn’t too far to drive to the movie theater in Reisterstown — at least for her. They married in 1953 and built a house on Kitty’s family farm.

“She entertained for him constantly, and he was great socially,” Frances Washburne said. “It was a good combo. I mean, she could put on a great party, and he could socialize with everyone there.”

They soon welcomed four children, Tuck, Richard, Frances and Mary, whom they raised as Roman Catholics. Kitty Washburne was an Episcopalian, but she agreed to raise the kids in their father’s faith. She made sure they went to Mass every week.

Washburne’s children remember their mother as very busy. After they were born, she founded and served as the first headmistress of The Valley School in Stevenson.

“It was never too difficult to talk her into doing something,” Tuck Washburne said. “If there was something that needed to be done, she would do it.”

Kitty Washburne was soon recruited to become the headmistress of The Bryn Mawr Lower School, where she stayed for 14 years. During her tenure, she earned a master’s degree in education from Loyola University.

She also founded the Little School, a co-ed prekindergarten program, and started the tradition of “Grandparents Day” after seeing many of them come to the school to pay tuition.

“She wasn’t afraid to think outside the box,” Tuck Washburne said.

After retiring from The Bryn Mawr School, she rediscovered an interest in gardening, lining the farm with flowers, trees and shrubs. She earned a certificate in landscape design and started a small flower business, Bundles of Bulbs.

She also joined and later led the Green Spring Valley Garden Club — and enlisted the help of neighbors. Among her recruits was Barbara Shea, who credited the organization for uprooting her entire garden when she moved houses and providing her family with at least two months of meals after her daughter died.

“They’re just a wonderful support group, and Kitty was right in there in the middle of them,” Shea said.

Washburne also became a close friend and confidante whom Shea visited whenever she needed to talk. Washburne would sit down across from her on the porch, offer a cup of tea and a sandwich on a fancy plate, and lend an ear.

“Whatever the problem, she would immerse herself into it and find out everything she could, and then would just be there, very gently, to talk you through it and give you lunch,” said Shea, who especially enjoyed her chicken salad and homemade biscuits.

She stayed busy in her later years in other ways, too. She served on the board of the Union Memorial Hospital, where she established “The Rites of Spring,” an annual fundraising event. She continued attending weekly Mass at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, where she served on the vestry as junior warden and chair of the Altar Guild.

She picked up photography and authored a book about her uncle’s life and his struggles with dyslexia. She spent endless hours reading to her grandchildren and doing art projects with them.

She told Reynolds, her art studio tenant, about all of it. He didn’t get a chance to see her before she died, but now imagines what their last conversation would have been.

He wanted to ask her to forward him her new email address ... from wherever she ended up next.

Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church.

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