Martha J. Schneider

Martha Jane Geoghegan Schneider, longtime organist and choir director at the Grace Methodist Church and a native of Cambridge, died Sunday evening at the Forsyth Medical Center in Winston Salem, N.C., from complications related to pneumonia. She was 92.

"Miss Martha," as she was known to many, was a community fixture. She served at Grace church for 26 years, playing the organ at Sunday services, directing adult and youth choirs, and playing the piano at other functions. She was also a president and teacher of the Dr. Hines Bible Class. She later worked and volunteered for groups like Meals on Wheels, the Salvation Army, and the Eastern Shore Hospital Center Auxiliary, and was the first director of Dorchester County's Retired Senior Volunteer Program. She was a frequent guest pianist at schools, nursing homes and churches throughout Dorchester County.

She often said that she was born able to read music and play the piano, an innate skill she refined with private lessons in piano and music theory at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.

She was born at her parents' house on Oakley Street on July 21, 1919, and described a carefree childhood with her two older brothers, wading in the Choptank River and taking summer trips to Hooper's Island. Her family arrived in Dorchester County from Ireland in the late 1600s, settling on the now-eroded James Island.

She graduated from Cambridge High School in 1936, and lived in the town most of her life. The notable exception was during World War II, when her husband, the late John Schneider III, was stationed at Air Force bases around the south before being deployed to London. In her later years she resided at nursing homes in North Carolina, where she continued playing music for the residents until near the end of her life.

She is survived by four children, John Schneider IV of Newtown, Ct., Barbara Ellen Saturn of New York City, New York, Martha Saturn of Winston Salem, N.C., and Howard Schneider of Takoma Park, Md., as well as five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at Grace United Methodist Church, 501 Race St., Cambridge Md., at 10 a.m. on Saturday July 28. Interment will follow at Old Trinity Churchyard. In lieu of flowers donations can be sent to Grace United Methodist Church, 501 Race Street, Cambridge, MD 21613. Arrangements are in the care of the Thomas Funeral Home, P.A. in Cambridge.