Obituaries

In the late 1940s and 1950s, Mr. Karas was a health inspector for the D.C. Health Department. He received a degree in business from Strayer Business College.

Mr. Karas was active in the community as local president of AHEPA, a Greek social and charitable organization. He often booked famous jazz musicians for the group's dances. He also was a 32nd-degree Mason.

He was a member of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church of Washington. He lived in Chevy Chase before moving to Florida in 1995.

His marriage to Ethel Karas ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife, Jacqueline "Jackie" Karas of Fort Lauderdale; two children from his first marriage, Athena Smith of Anaheim, Calif., and Stephen Karas of Virginia Beach; three stepchildren, Douglas Diehm of Shadyside, Ronald Diehm of Olney and Janice Bort of Silver Spring; a brother, George Karas of Weeki Wachee, Fla.; two sisters, Mary Pittas and Elaine Arnette, both of Frederick; and six grandchildren.

-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb

Eleanor D. 'Nellie' LideCommunications Consultant

Eleanor Duncan "Nellie" Lide, 48, a onetime television writer and producer who had spent the past six years as senior creative director for a communications consulting firm in Arlington County, died Nov. 14 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. She had cardiomyopathy, a heart disease.

Mrs. Lide had been working since 2001 at the McGinn Group. Her assignments included identifying and analyzing cultural trends while writing and editing for its "New Persuasion" blog.

She was born in Takoma Park and raised in Rockville, where she was a 1976 graduate of Rockville High School. She was a 1980 communications graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a member of the women's varsity basketball team.

From 1982 to 1986, she was an associate producer for the "60 Minutes" CBS news program. She then worked on and off through the early 1990s as a writer and producer for Washington area stations WUSA-TV and WJLA-TV.

She was a former board member of the Twinbrook Swimming Pool in Rockville, her city of residence, and a sodality member of St. Jane Frances de Chantal Catholic Church in Bethesda. At the church, she was involved in community outreach programs. She also coached the girls' basketball team at the church's school.

In recent years, she graduated from the D.C. Improv Comedy School and continued to perform as part of the D.C. Improv cast.

Survivors include her husband of 22 years, David A. Lide, and their three children, Mary E. Lide, David A. Lide Jr. and Grace E. Lide, all of Rockville; her mother, Eleanor "Ellie" Duncan of Rockville; six brothers, Dwight G. Duncan of Boston, Bruce X. Duncan of Hagerstown, former Montgomery county executive Douglas M. Duncan of Rockville, James T. Duncan Jr. of Narragansett, R.I., Glenn P. Duncan of Clarksville and Brian T. Duncan of Glendale, Calif.; and six sisters, Marie T. "Terry" Frank of Boston, Lee Anne Gerrick of Rockville, Mary Joan Raff of Darnestown, Bernadette Zabel of Ellicott City, Mary Anne "Mimi" Harris of London and Monica Martinson of Evanston, Ill.

-- Adam Bernstein