Elizabeth Duncan Hendrickson

Elizabeth Duncan Brown Hendrickson

Elizabeth Duncan Brown Hendrickson, age 97, of Ruxton, Maryland, passed away on November 17, 2025 at Brightwood Club in Lutherville, Maryland.

She was born on November 11, 1928, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, to Thomas George Brown and Ethel Margaret Duncan Brown. At the age of three, her family moved to London, where she grew up and attended school in Wimbledon.

During World War II, when the Blitz began in June 1940, she was evacuated to a boarding school in Wales. After the war, Elizabeth studied piano for four years at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1952, she spent a year in Canada visiting family, practicing piano at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and performing for several music clubs.

Upon returning to the United Kingdom, she worked for the Queen's orthopedic surgeon and taught piano privately. In 1957, she visited friends in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she remained for three years while working at the Institute of Early American History. In 1960, she moved to Washington, D.C., and became Registrar at the Folger Shakespeare Library. She fondly recalled standing along Constitution Avenue on a snowy January day to witness President Kennedy's inaugural parade.

Elizabeth met her husband, John D. Hendrickson II, while visiting Frederick with her roommate, and they were married in April 1963 at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg. After living in Georgetown, they settled in Baltimore in 1968, where they raised their four children: John (Jake) D. Hendrickson III of Darien, Connecticut; Margaret (Meg) Darrell of Ruxton, Maryland; Martha Shelley of Charlotte, North Carolina; and Alex Hendrickson of Frenchtown, New Jersey.

She was preceded in death by her brother, George Alexander, and his wife, Barbara. Elizabeth is survived by her husband, John; her four children; and ten beloved grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Mary Mason Hendrickson Memorial Endowment Fund at the Community Foundation of Frederick County, Maryland.