Elizabeth Rouse

Elizabeth Jamieson Winstead "Libby" Rouse, the former wife of developer James Rouse — who helped inspire the original concepts used in the development of Columbia — died of pneumonia in November 2010 at her home in North Roland Park. She was 96. She had been an official of the National Peace Foundation and was an advocate of conflict resolution. Born in Goldsboro, N.C., and raised in Ruxton and on Bellemore Road, she showed an interest in the arts as a child. She studied voice at the Peabody Conservatory and sculpture at the Rinehart School of the Maryland Institute College of Art. At 20, she moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League. Family members said that while in Manhattan, she discovered a young preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick, at the Riverside Church. He became a spiritual mentor. She returned to Baltimore and met James Rouse, a mortgage banker. They married May 3, 1941, at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. She attended Goucher College and earned a bachelor's degree and master's degree from Antioch University. Mr. and Mrs. Rouse divorced in the early 1970s after more than three decades of marriage. In addition to her two sons, survivors include a brother, Thomas Winstead of Baltimore; and seven grandchildren, including actor Edward Norton. Her daughter, Lydia Robinson Rouse "Robin" Norton, died in 1997. James Rouse died in 1996.