Elkton, August 22, 2012 — It was a sad day at Singerly Fire Company in Elkton today as about two hundred emergency responders, friends and family said goodbye to E. Rosemary Culley. The 76-year-old pioneer in Cecil County Emergency Services passed away on August 17, 2012. She started as a volunteer in the Perryville Ladies Auxiliary in the 1950s and ended up retiring as the director of the Department of Emergency Management in 1997. Along the way she broke barriers and served as a role model for emergency responders.
Rosie was honored with a traditional fire-service funeral. Engines from all nine county companies escorted the family and mourners to the North East Methodist Cemetery. Singerly’s old 1952 Oren, engine 314, made the seven mile journey too as the flower wagon. When the long line of police cars, fire apparatus, EMS vehicles and personal cars passed Station # 13, on-duty personnel stood at attention in front of engine bays draped with black mourning bunting.
The crossed ladders tribute honored the public servant. As the funeral procession slowly passed the firehouse, mourners went under an arch formed by two aerial units towering over Newark Avenue. A United States Flag hanging from the ladders flapped gently in the August breeze.
Rosie was remembered as a dedicated volunteer and career public servant who rose through the ranks as she devoted much of her life to citizens of Cecil County. Rosie will be missed.
God Bless her, she was a gift to this county and it’s citizens.