Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Miriam SellersDance Teacher
Miriam Sellers, 87, a matriarch of dance instruction who taught generations of mothers and daughters how to tap and slide with grace, died Sept. 4 at Collingswood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Rockville after a series of strokes.
From 1950 to 1988, she owned and operated the Sellers School of Dance in Wheaton. She spent another decade teaching dance at Montgomery County senior centers after overhearing a woman at a nursing home say she had wanted all her life to learn to dance.
Mrs. Sellers won the 1990 Miss Senior Maryland award as well as a talent contest in the Ms. Senior America pageant.
Born Miriam Ehrmantraut, the native Washingtonian was the daughter of dance teachers with a studio in Georgetown. Her three daughters now have dance studios in Maryland.
She began learning tap at 2 and a decade later joined her older brother in a ballroom act known professionally as Ed and Ann Crystal; her brother's name was Ed, and she used her middle name. They entertained at churches and theaters along the East Coast.
She later danced in vaudeville shows and clubs and entertained servicemen in USO shows during World War II. She attended the old Western High School.
Her husband of 61 years, Garland Sellers, died in 1999.
Survivors include three daughters, Dawn Crafton-Rawlings of Washington, Diane Herbert of Dunkirk and Denise Shores Schattenberg of Adamstown; a sister; seven grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; and a great-great-granddaughter.
-- Adam Bernstein
Herbert H. FocklerDevelopment Director
Herbert Hill Fockler, 86, Georgetown University's development director from 1975 to 1985, died of pneumonia Aug. 31 at Holy Cross Hospital. He was a Silver Spring resident.
After his work at Georgetown, Mr. Fockler was an adviser on a Russian cultural exchange program with the State Department and chaired foundations for technology and sustainability.
He was born in Summersville, W.Va., and was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II.
After the war, he graduated from West Virginia University and in 1948 received a master's degree in political science and international relations from the school. In 1952, he received a master's degree in library sciences from Catholic University.
He was director of the Library of Congress's serials department from 1956 to 1958, then spent a year as assistant director of the White House Conference on Children and Youth.
Between 1961 and 1969, he worked as chairman of the grant research committee at the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Library of Medicine.
During the Nixon administration, Mr. Fockler was director of the office of voluntary action in the Executive Office of the President.
He advised a number of organizations, including the Washington Academy of Sciences and the National Council for Science and the Environment.
Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Mary Z. Fockler of Silver Spring; a son, Herbert P. Fockler of Menlo Park, Calif.; two brothers; and a granddaughter.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Lawrence J. EanetDermatologist, Jazz Pianist
Lawrence J. Eanet, 77, a Rockville dermatologist and jazz pianist, died Sept. 13 at his home in Great Falls. He had lung cancer.
Mr. Eanet operated his own dermatology practice in Rockville from 1964 to 1996. On nights and weekends, he would perform jazz at clubs and music halls throughout the Washington region.
Lawrence Joseph Eanet, a native Washingtonian, began playing piano when he was 4. By age 14, he was performing in downtown clubs.
He continued to entertain live audiences throughout college and medical school. He was performing until his cancer was diagnosed in February.
He attended Roosevelt High School in Washington but graduated from the private Phillips Academy Andover in Andover, Mass. He received a degree in music and literature from Harvard University in 1952 and a medical degree from George Washington University in 1956.
Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Janice Weisberg Eanet of Great Falls; three children, Becky Eanet of Oak Park, Ill., Jonathan Eanet of Baltimore and Franny Eanet of Norwich, Vt.; and two grandchildren.
-- Lauren Wiseman