Harriet Iglehart

1927 - 2021

Harriet Stokes Iglehart

May 2, 1927 – July 1, 2021

Harriet Iglehart died peacefully at her home on Carroll Branch Farm in Monkton on July 1, 2021 at 94 years of age, surrounded by the love and care of all generations of her family.

A figure prominent in social, equestrian, agricultural, art, justice, and environmental activities throughout Baltimore County, she remained active in all of them to the end of her life. She was ever committed to the people in whom she believed and the causes they shared, and leaves a community and family long sustained by her example of grace, command, and purpose. She was renowned for her humor, kindness, and generosity. In her book of poetry Happily, her niece Joan Allan Aleshire described her as "a woman filled with sun."

Born Harriet Austen Stokes, and raised in Glencoe by her parents John and Elaine Lord Stokes, she grew up helping with their family dairy operation, named Hillside, which adjoined Filston Farm Dairy and Oldfields School. Later, she would take off her muddy boots for social events, and was soon engaged to Francis N. Iglehart, Jr. of the Green Spring Valley. Harriet and "Ike" were, respectively, 19 and 21 years of age at their marriage, which lasted 60 years until his death in 2007.

When pressed, she would tell stories of her childhood, during which she caught the train from Glencoe every morning to attend Greenwood School in Ruxton. Between school work, farm work, and creating handmade cards for friends and family, she quickly became an accomplished rider, going on nearly daily adventures throughout the countryside with young friends such as the late Celie Van Hollen, Betty Bosley, Nancy Sehlhorst, and Frances Gould. "I was a little older," once reminisced her lifelong friend, the late Sarah Bosley Secor, "but I tell you they were all over the place, like wild Indians! And that Harriet, she was just a natural with a horse." From age 10 and up, her performance at pony and horse shows made her one of the East Coast's top child riders. Some of these events she helped organize as fundraisers leading up to World War II, once successfully writing to the then-governor of Maryland for his support. This sense of civic duty never left her.

After the war and marriage, she and husband Ike acquired Carroll Branch Farm and bestowed similar happy and hard-working childhoods on their five children. She often joked with them that he forgot his promise beforehand not to make her a farmer. But the promise was kept nonetheless in their vibrant social, sporting, political, and philanthropic lives together, along with their many friends throughout Monkton, Baltimore County, and beyond.

Harriet was a tireless supporter of many cultural causes, such as Ladew Gardens and the newly-emerging Center Stage. Her work with Planned Parenthood spanned twenty years. As a volunteer and eventual board member, she often took directly to the streets of Baltimore to raise awareness of free health services available to those who often had access to no health care at all.

Amid these and all other pursuits, she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in English and literature at Johns Hopkins night school, wrote 48 articles for magazines, most notably for the Maryland Horse, and wrote for and edited the Elkridge-Harford Hunt Club newsletter for 23 years. Her published work resulted in delightful profiles of a wide range of people from all walks of life, often far from her own. She simultaneously kept Carroll Branch Farm in continual livestock or crop production for a total of 63 years, as it is today.

Planned Parenthood honored her at a board dinner, at which another volunteer accidentally misspelled her name tag as "Harried". She immediately posted this apt error to her refrigerator door, where it remained for decades.

About her boundless energy and care, the late Sarah Secor once again captured her effect in saying, "All these places and causes where she has worked over the years – they all rely on her. They all say the same thing: 'I don't know what I would have done without Harriet. She's the one who always comes through.'"

Mrs. Iglehart is survived by her brother John Austen Stokes, her five children Hallie, Frank, Tom, Laney, and John, three grandchildren, a great-grandchild, and numerous nieces and nephews.

At her request, a private family service will be held in her memory at St. James Church in Monkton. In lieu of flowers, donations may instead be sent in her honor to Planned Parenthood or The Manor Conservancy, PO Box 408, Monkton, MD 21111.