by Christie Chapman
Staff Writer - The Gazette Newspapers
Hospital volunteer celebrates 91st birthday, more than 30 years of service
Bowie, MD - As Marie Summers stood in front of the sheet cake the hospital staff had bought for her 91st birthday, one of her co-workers suggested that everyone share stories about working with her.
"No, Ms. Summers should be telling us stories," someone else said during the celebration last week.
Many of those at Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly know about the historical past of Summers, who has assisted with medical records and clerical work at the hospital for more than 30 years and logged nearly 16,000 volunteering hours.
Helping care for the ailing is something Summers has in common with her famous grandfather, Dr. Samuel Mudd.
"After John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at the Ford Theater in D.C., Booth fell off the stage and broke his leg," Summers said. "He and another man rode on horseback to Waldorf and knocked on my grandfather's door at four in the morning, and my grandfather set his leg. This was in 1865, and my grandfather hadn't heard about the assassination. But he was convicted of being a conspirator and imprisoned."
Mudd has since been the subject of at least two movies, including the 1936 "The Prisoner of Shark Island."
"When that movie came out in D.C., they sent a limo to take my family to it," she said.
Summers was born in and lived in Mudd House, which is now a museum, until she went off to study business at Strayer College in the District.
Her first job was working for the U.S. Census Bureau, helping compile information for the 1930 census.
She went on to find herself in close proximity to another figure in American history, becoming one of J. Edgar Hoover's secretaries.
"The FBI was a new organization at that time," Summers said. "I knew shorthand, and they told me, 'We need you.' [Hoover] had a personal secretary and then two or three other secretaries like me."
Today Summers still uses shorthand to take down phone messages.
She lives at Collington in Bowie, a residential area for seniors, where she is surprised at the lack of activity in some of her neighbors' lives.
"I eat with some of the residents of Collington sometimes," she said. "I'm amazed that some of them do nothing all day. One of them once said to me, 'I don't put on my pajamas until 2:30 in the afternoon.' But I like that at the end of the day, I know that I've done something and it hasn't been a 'zero day.' I'll be doing this for as long as I'm able to, mentally and physically."
She said that she sometimes worries about her memory, which she is afraid isn't as sharp as it was in the days when the Cheverly Police Department used to say, "Go ask Ms. Summers; she remembers everything."
During the 17 years Summers worked at the Cheverly Town Hall, she had a reputation for being meticulous and received a plaque from the town for her service.
Those who work with her at the hospital also sing her praises.
"She's here every day for at least five or six hours," said Karen Goldman, a volunteer coordinator. "Even on the days when it snows, she's here, and she drives herself."
Hospital executives are also familiar with Summers' skills.
"Ms. Summers does a phenomenal job," said Phyllis Wingate-Jones, president of the hospital's board of directors. "She is an inspiration."
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