Ellen deRochbrune Skinner Freeland

Ellen S. Freeland, of Easton, died peacefully at William Hill Gardens in Easton on August 11, 2010. She was 95. She was born Ellen deRochbrune Skinner April 29, 1915 in Philadelphia, the daughter of Lewis Edward Skinner and Ella deRochbrune Perry of Chestertown, and was reared in Swarthmore, PA, and Bronxville, NY. She graduated from Highland Hall in PA, where she was captain of the field hockey team, high jump champion, and an equestrian. She attended Sarah Lawrence College. She was an avid tennis player over the years, a figure skater, and an excellent dancer. She was gregarious and loved people, dogs, and conversation. Mrs. Freeland was a model for Vogue and Assistant to its Art Director during the late 1930s and early 1940s. In 1942 she married Donald George O’Meara, a Princeton graduate and a naval officer during World War II, serving at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and at a naval base in California. After the war, in 1945, they lived in New Canaan, CT, moving to Chevy Chase, MD in 1970, where she modeled for and otherwise was active in charitable organizations, and in 1979 moved to Vero Beach, FL before moving to Talbot County, where she married Samuel Lyles Freeland, of Easton. She was a talented seamstress, enjoying altering her clothing, an enthusiastic bridge player, gardener, and bird feeder at her home. In her prior communities, Mrs. Freeland had been active in various community and charitable organizations, and in Easton was a member of and volunteer at the Talbot County Historical Society and Academy of the Arts. She was a member of the Tred Avon Yacht Club and former member of the Talbot Country Club. Over the years she traveled widely in Europe, including Scandinavia, Russia, Scotland, England and France. More than once, in the U.S. and in England, she was taken to be Katherine Hepburn. As a young girl she spent much time each summer with her young lady first cousins and their families in Chestertown, and loved the Eastern Shore. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her son, Donald George O’Meara, Jr.; her granddaughter, Hélo?se Perry O’Meara, of Paris, France; her first cousins: Mackey Metcalfe Dutton, Jane Kibler Bristoll, Ann Wilmer Hoon of Chestertown, and Elizabeth Beck Welton, of Virginia Beach, VA; and numerous nieces and nephews in the U.S., England, and the Netherlands. Two brothers, Lewis Edward Skinner, Jr., of Prescott AZ, and John Perry Skinner, of Chestertown, predeceased her. Graveside services will be held privately at Old Saint Paul’s Cemetery in Kent County. It is requested that memorial contributions be made to a favorite charity. Arrangements by Fellows, Helfenbein & Newnam Funeral Home, P.A. in Easton.

Ellen deRochbrune Skinner Freeland

April 29, 1915 - August 11, 2010