Katharine "Kit" Foster

1948 - 2023

Katharine "Kit" McCausland Foster passed away on February 24, 2023, at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. She was 74 years old.

Kit was born in Baltimore, MD on July 4, 1948, the daughter of the late Dr. Charles P. and Helen Zimmerman McCausland, Jr. At an early age the family moved to "Melinda," an historic home in Maryland's Worthington Valley. Growing up there as the daughter of two keen collectors and gardeners developed Kit's deep passion for historical preservation, gardening and antiques.

Kit graduated from Garrison Forest School in 1966 and attended Green Mountain College before graduating from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1970. On May 26, 1976, she married her husband, John Foster, whom she'd known since high school. The newlywed couple spent an adventurous first two years of their marriage living aboard the boat Pandemonium III on the Eastern Shore until the entire Chesapeake Bay froze in the winter of 1978 and the couple relocated to Queenstown, MD.

During the early 1980s, Kit worked in Annapolis managing Beneteau Yacht's first operation in the United States then moved to a position at Anne Wallis-White Yacht Charters. Although Kit left the workforce in 1986 with the arrival of the couple's son Ned, she remained a fixture at junior regattas where she'd tote Ned and the family's Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Barkley, around with her in her station wagon.

Kit was very involved with the Queen Anne's County Mental Health Committee and served as president of its board for several years while also committing time to the Corsica River Yacht Club. Kit was a major supporter of Queen Anne's County Master Gardeners and was a master gardener herself. She was involved with numerous native, sustainable garden projects and put her knowledge to work at her own homes, first in Queenstown and again when she and her husband moved to a farm in Church Hill where they undertook significant interior and exterior renovations. She enjoyed gardening and traveling, and especially loved traveling to the United Kingdom to explore the gardens and houses of the English countryside.

In addition to her husband of almost 50 years, she is survived by her son, John W.S. "Ned" Foster, IV and his wife Katie, of Queenstown, MD; brothers Ross McCausland of Glyndon, MD, and Dr. Charles McCausland III, of Hunt Valley, MD; her faithful canine companion, Georgie; and numerous nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews, the latter of whom she was committed to sharing the joys of reading with and marked celebrations in their lives with special deliveries of books. She was preceded in death by her sister, Helen "Candy" Byrnes.

Services will be held on Saturday, April 8 at 2:00 pm at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Centreville.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Queen Anne's County Mental Health Committee at P.O. Box 183, Queenstown, MD 21658.