Melda B. Harris, 74, a registered nurse in the Washington Area who retired in 1978 from the staff of Glenn Dale Hospital in Glenn Dale, Md, died of cardiopulmonary arrest January 26, 1990, at the home of her daughter in Kensington, MD
Melda Elizabeth Beitzel Harris was born in Grantsville, Md in January 8, 1916. She graduated as Salutatorian of her class at Accident High School, Accident, MD in 1932. She came to Bethesda, MD in 1934 where she worked for Ernest Aiken. In 1936 she began nurse's training at Sibley Hospital's Lucy Webb Hayes School of Nursing, in Washington D.C. She Graduated from Nursing School in 1940 and was married to W.F.Harris in April 10, 1941. She lived in New Jersey from 1941-1944, she lived in High Point, NC from 1944 to 1951 where she was night supervisor of Nurses at High Point Memorial Hospital. She worked at Sacred Heart Hospital in Cumberland from 1951-1952. She returned to Washington in 1952 where she worked as a Private Duty Nurse with Polio Patients. She joined the nursing staff at D.C. General Hospital, then she went to Glenn Dale Hospital in 1965. She was a member of First Baptist Church in Edgewater, Md; the National Association of Registered Nurses, and the American Association of Retired Persons. She had been separated from her husband, Wilber Fiske Harris since July 1951. Survivors include two daughters Florence Abel of Greenbelt and Kensington, MD; Joan Griffith of Edgewater, three brothers Curtis Beitzel of New Smyrna, Fla, Ellis Beitzel, Salisbury, Pa; William Beitzel, Grantsville, MD; four sisters, Violet Higgins, Frostburg, Md, Trellis Rassier, Kingston, NY, Alice Bittinger, Akron, Ohio, and Hollie Fazenbaker, Westernport, MD; Four grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She was predeceased by one child Janet Lee Harris, two brothers: Harold Beitzel and Warren Beitzel, two sisters Elsie Beitzel Opel and Beulah Beitzel Resh. rwere held at Newman Funeral Home, Grantsville, Md, on January 29,1960, officiated by Rev Butch Glotfelty. Interment was in Bittinger Cemetery, Bittinger, MD.