Fannie Sparks

Fannie Turner Sparks of Sudlersville, MD., died Saturday, September 30, 2006 at the Hospice of Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Baltimore, MD. She was 83. Fannie T. Sparks was born March 21, 1923 in Price, Maryland, the daughter of the late Fred Mark Turner and Mabel Bassett Turner. She married her high school sweetheart on June 22, 1941. She and her husband and two daughters moved from the Eastern Shore to Baltimore County in 1943 and lived there until after their retirement when they moved back to the Eastern Shore to be closer to their sisters and brothers. Mrs. Sparks retired from Lucent Technologies (formerly Western Electric Co. and A.T. & T Technologies) after many years of service. She was always health conscious and had been active in aerobics since 1957. She was a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother. She was truly an angel on earth always keeping peace in her family. She never knew a stranger. Mrs. Sparks was instrumental in bringing baton twirling to the Baltimore County area in 1947 by finding the first baton twirling instructor in the area when her oldest daughter, Mary Frances wanted to become a baton twirler. She enjoyed traveling and going camping in their travel trailer before her late husband illness. She was a Lady Lion in the Sudlersville Lion’s Club, a member of the Top of the Hill senior group at Calvary Asbury United Methodist Church in Sudlersville, Maryland. She was a member of Orems United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Maryland, until moving to Sudlersville where she joined the Calvary Asbury United Methodist Church. She also sang in both church choirs. In addition to her parents Mrs. Sparks was preceded in death by her husband of 63 years, Edward M. Sparks, a brother, Charles F. Turner, Sr., and a grandson, Scott Edward Frank. She is survived by two daughters, Mary Frances and husband K.A. (Butch) Frank of Baltimore, Maryland, and Edith and husband G. Douglas Aitken of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, two grandsons, Michael J. and Charles A. Frank of Baltimore, Maryland, a great grandson, Michael J. Frank, Jr., and many nieces and nephews. Services will be held Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 11am at the Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home, 370 W. Cypress St. Millington, Maryland. A visitation will be held Wednesday, October 4, 2006 from 7-9 p.m. also at the funeral home. Interment will be held Friday, October 6, 2006 at 11a.m., at Bel Air Memorial Gardens in Bel Air, Maryland.