Patricia Joan McGhee, 74, a six-year resident of Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville, died of pneumonia and Parkinson's disease at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore after a lengthy illness.

Mrs. McGhee was born March 10, 1931, and reared in Verona, N.J., and had lived in Reisterstown and Severna Park. She received a bachelor's degree from what is now Montclair State University in New Jersey and later a master's degree in education. She retired as a teacher of English for speakers of other languages teacher from Anne Arundel County Public Schools in 1994.

She was a choir member at Charlestown and St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Severna Park. She enjoyed travel, musical theater, swimming and reading.

Her marriage to Richard E. Fischer in 1961 ended in divorce in 1971. In 1976 she married Virgil C. McGhee, who died in 1996.

Surviving are two sons, Richard Fischer of Beltsville and Rodney Fischer of Annapolis; two daughters, Amy Fischer of Gettysburg, Pa., and Tammy Parker of Akron, Ohio; one stepdaughter, Kathleen Hensley of Baltimore; and seven grandchildren.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 689 Ritchie Highway, Severna Park. Burial will be private. Arrangements are by Barranco and Sons Severna Park Funeral Home. Online condolences may be made to www.barrancofuneralhome.com.

Memorial contributions, in lieu of flowers, may be made to the National Parkinson Foundation Inc., Office of Development, 1501 NW 9th Ave., Miami, FL 33136-1494.

As published in The Capital Newspaper on 3/1/2006