DENTON - Mary Ann Knotts Walsh, whose vivid recollections will inform future generations about life in Caroline County, Md., in the period before and during World War II, died on Sept. 16, 2012, following an illness of four months initiated by a stroke. Mrs. Walsh recorded her recollections in a memoir entitled "Golden Days and Gentle Ways: My World from the Wooden Porch Swing, 1922-1939," and also did recordings for the Caroline County Historical Society. Born during the Great Blizzard of 1922, she was raised in a house bordering the Courthouse Square in Denton at a time when the Courthouse Green often served as a playground for the children of the town. Her late father, J. Owen Knotts, presided during her youth in the Courthouse in Denton as the Chief Judge of the Second Judicial Court of Maryland and her late mother, Margaret Bidwell Smith Knotts, was a prominent social leader in the town. Mrs. Walsh's childhood playmates included future governors Harry R. Hughes and Sherman Tribbett as well as Charles Moore, Mary Ellen Wright, Madeline Cooper, Bill Greenly and the "Cawley boys." After attending public schools in Denton from 1927 to 1937, she attended the exclusive Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Del. In 1939 she chose to attend Connecticut College for Women over Vassar and other colleges. During her senior year at the New London college, she met Lt. Commander Quentin Robert Walsh of the United States Coast Guard. They were married with military trappings in St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church in Denton on June 8, 1943 just days before her husband's deployment to England to help plan military operations essential to the pending Allied invasion of Normandy, France. A description of the hectic events surrounding her marriage ceremony was recorded by the noted author Paul Stillwell and entitled "Wartime Bride." During the War, Mrs. Walsh did war work at Johns Hopkins Hospital and for Civil Defense in Caroline County. Commander Walsh became a naval legend for his capture of the last German stronghold in the French port of Cherbourg in 1944. However, he returned home with serious respiratory problems caused by his arduous service for which he was awarded the Navy Cross. After consulting with the Mayo Clinic about his illness, Commander Walsh was retired in 1945 and the Walsh family relocated with their newborn daughter, Ann Bronwyn, to the dry desert climate in Tucson, Arizona. Two additional children, Quentin R. Walsh, Jr. and James Owen Knotts Walsh were born in Tucson. With the outbreak of the Korean War, her husband's military career was reactivated, and the Walshes returned to Denton in 1950. Mrs. Walsh raised their three children in Denton while her husband served in Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., returning home only on weekends. Following years of child-rearing, in 1960 Mrs. Walsh became Supervisor of Foster Care and Adoptions for the Maryland Department of Social Services in Denton. After her retirement in 1974, she remained active as a volunteer in numerous mental health organizations as well as services for troubled children. The Walshes had purchased and restored Willson's Chance near Denton in 1963. The project reflected Mrs. Walsh's great love for history and historic preservation. She has been one of the largest contributors of both funding and artifacts to the Caroline County Historical Society. Her husband, Captain Walsh, died of World War II-related respiratory problems in 2000. In addition to her three children, Q.R. Walsh and J.O.K. Walsh of Denton and Bronie Zolper of Dewey Beach, Del., she is survived by four grandchildren, Carl William Zolper III, Matthew Mott Zolper, Patrick Walsh Zolper and Casey Liam Zolper; as well as ten Zolper-line great-grandchildren, Jared, Payton, Owen, Jeb, Jackson, Delaney, Liam, Ash Lynn, Madison, and Alexis. Mrs. Walsh was predeceased by two brothers, James Owen Knotts, Jr. and James O. Knotts III; as well as one sister, Margaret Jane Knotts Huber. Her remains will be interred in a private ceremony beside those of her husband at the Maryland Veterans Cemetery at Beulah, Maryland. To celebrate Mrs. Walsh's life, friends and acquaintances are invited to an informal reception at the Museum of Rural Life, 16 N. Second Street in Denton from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012. In lieu of flowers, friends are asked to make contributions to the Caroline County Historical Society, P.O. Box 514, Denton, MD 21629. For online messages to the family, please go to moorefuneralhomepa.com.