Rosalie Y. Figge

FIGGE, Rosalie, Y. ">On April 10, 2006 ROSALIE YERKES FIGGE 96, of Towson, MD, iris expert, cancer research assistant, and editor, died on April 10. Born on July 30, 1909, in Henderson, N.C, she married the late Frank H. J. Figge in 1932. They had two daughters, seven grandchildren, and 18 great grandchildren. For the first half of her life Mrs. Figge raised her daughters and supported the cancer research efforts of her husband, who was chairman of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Maryland Medical School. She was in charge of a colony of 10,000 laboratory mice, and she assisted in the editing and proofreading of the Sobotta-Figge Atlas of Human Anatomy. After his death in 1973 she channeled her energy into her garden and her work for the American Iris Society (AIS), attending almost every national convention and numerous international iris gatherings. With its arboretum-quality specimen plants, her garden was on regional, national, and international tours. She is a past president of the Reblooming Iris Society (RIS, a division of AIS), a recipient of the RIS Distinguished Service Award, and past president of the Maryland-based Francis Scott Key chapter of AIS. An evangelist for Siberian, Japanese, and especially reblooming irises, she had a beautiful deep violet reblooming iris named in her honor. The iris Rosalie Figge is now one of the most popular garden irises in Europeas well as in North America. She lived alone in Towson for four decades, organizing her life so as to remain safe and healthy and corresponding by email with dozens of younger friends and irisarians. Her interests also included parliamentary procedure, genealogy, Bible study, history, nature, conservation, and photography. Until two months before her death she was driving herself to workouts with a personal trainer. She had visited all the continents except Antarctica. . She belonged to the Edith S. Stidman unit of the Maryland Association of Parliamentarians, and was parliamentarian of the national AIS at the time of her death. She had been a chapter president of the Daughters of the American Revolution, a docent for the DAR Museu min Washington DC, and a national conservation chairman. She served on the board of Florence Crittenton Services, was a telephone counselor with Contact, a life member of the Girl Scouts of the USA, a member of the Ice Club of Baltimore and the Towson and Roland Park womens clubs, and belonged to numerous genealogical, horticultural, and conservation organizations. She had established a fund to support undergraduate biology research at Colorado College. Her father, Dawson Martin Yerkes, was justice of the peace in Millbourne, Pennsylvania; her mother was Myrtle Harris Yerkes. She was predeceased by a younger brother, her husband, a son who died in infancy, and a great grandson. She had two daughters, RosalieAnn Figge Beasley, of Leonardtown, Maryland and Barbara Figge Fox of Princeton, New Jersey; and seven grandchildren, Dorothy Ellen Beasley Cooley, of Ellicott City, Maryland; Elizabeth DeGruchy Fox Dodge, of Rochester, New York; Barbara Eveline Beasley Ligman, of Miami, Florida; George Fox Jr., of Livonia, Michigan; Elizabeth DuBree Beasley Kleiber, of Frisco, Texas; Susannah Rogers Fox, of Washington, DC; and Robert Hewett Beasley III, of Summerville, South Carolina. Her great grandchildren are Michael Paul Cooley, Mary Elizabeth Cooley, Matthew Patrick Cooley, Dakota William Ligman, Montana Genivieve Ligman, Justin Tanner Kleiber, Amelia Elizabeth Kleiber, Jenna Grace Kleiber, Robert Nicholas Beasley, Carson Hewett Beasley, BreeAnn Kathleen Beasley, Meghan Elizabeth Fox, Jillian Taylor Fox, Kaitlyn Grace Fox, George McKibben Fox, Samuel Harry Fox-Halperin, Nathaniel Zvi Fox-Halperin, and Robert Lawrence Dodge. She donated her body to the Anatomy Board, which her husband had directed. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 29, at 11 a.m. at Towson Presbyterian Church, 400 West Chesapeake Avenue, Towson, MD 21204. Interment will be in Henderson, North Carolina. Memorial contributions may be made in her name to the American Iris Society (c/o Donna James, 887 County Route 3, Hannibal, NY 13074-2354) or to a charity of the donors choice.