Mary Knott Bazemore Hopkins

Mary Knott Bazemore Hopkins, age 93, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, April 29, 2020.

Mary was born in Philadelphia on Sept. 12, 1926. She was the daughter of Earl Leroy Bazemore and Mary Knott Bazemore, MD.

Mary was a graduate of The Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke College and Bryn Mawr College. Mary dedicated her entire life to the enrichment of others in many ways. After college she assisted in London during World War II as a volunteer helping to rehouse those who had lost homes to the bombings. After returning, she taught first grade at The Episcopal Academy, Merion, and later was head of school for districts specializing in working with children with special needs.

In 1951, she married John “Jack” Hopkins, MD, who was then finishing his residency in general surgery at Lankenau Hospital. They shared a full and happy marriage for 63 years.

At age 35, Mary attended and graduated magna cum laude from the Temple University school of horticulture. Her passion for everything beautiful in the landscape became her legacy. Her own gardens in Penn Valley were open to the Garden Club of America, and she designed gardens well into her 80s up and down the East Coast, bringing joy and beauty to many private homes, schools and public places.

Mary was very intellectual, and had a passion for learning and sharing her knowledge. She taught at the Barnes Foundation for many years as well as lecturing to innumer- able garden groups throughout the country. In her 50s, she and her husband Jack organized and led study tours abroad covering history, horticulture and architecture for a total of 29 trips exploring European countries, leading groups such as the Union League of Philadelphia, the Charleston Museum Group and the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society.

She and Jack retired to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1990 for 15 years. They continued to spend summers and holidays in their beloved Spring Valley Farm in Benton. This place she called “heaven on earth” continues to be the destination for family and friends with its beauty and serenity she and Jack and family created over the years.
In describing her life upon receiving The Baldwin School alumnae award in 1999, Mary said “I was brilliantly happy. I was teaching. I was learning. I was creating and I was standing in the mud. What more could life hold?”

Mary’s love of life, beauty and nature, is carried on by her children: Elizabeth Blackstone, San Anselmo, California, and John Hopkins Jr. and his wife, Todd, of Orangeville. Mary was preceded in death by her husband, Jack Hopkins, and daughter, Caroline Shauger of Orangeville. She is survived by eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and her loving brother, Charles Bazemore and wife, Kathy, of Atlanta.
 

Private family memorial services will be held a later date. Friends may remember Mary with a contribution to a charity of the donors choice.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Roat- Kriner Funeral Home, 1133 Bloom Road, Danville.
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