Doris R. Friedel, a retired Baltimore public schools art teacher and a gourmet cook, died of congestive heart failure Monday at the Maples of Towson, an assisted-living facility. She was 87.

The daughter of Edward Reuter, a Ford dealer, and Agnes Reuter, a homemaker, Doris Reuter was born and raised in Kenmore, N.Y. She was a descendant of Paul Julius Reuter, who established the international news agency Reuters in London in 1851.

After graduating from St, Mary's Seminary in Buffalo, N.Y., she earned a bachelor's degree in art in 1950 from what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University. She later earned a master's degree from what is now Towson University.

From 1959 to 1969, she taught art and fourth grade at Leith Walk Elementary School.

She painted in oils for years and in the 1990s turned to watercolors. One of her oil paintings won an award from the Baltimore Museum of Art, said a daughter, Maura A. Manley of Cambridge.

In 1952, she married George Arthur “Bud” Friedel Jr., a financial planner, and for 63 years the couple lived on Alston Road in Riderwood.

A gourmet cook whose cookbook collection “nearly reached the ceiling,” according to her daughter, Mrs. Friedel studied with such noted chefs as Julia Child, Paul Prudhomme and Lee Bailey.

She enjoyed entertaining family and friends at dinner parties.

“Her standing rib roast, beef bourguignon and raspberry cream would bring tears to your eyes,” her daughter said.

Mrs. Friedel enjoyed traveling, collecting antiques and gardening.

Ms. Manley described her mother as a “free spirit and an independent woman.”

At her father's insistence, Mrs. Friedel earned her private pilot's license and enjoyed flying Cessna airplanes during the 1950s.

Mr. Friedel died in 2015, and for the past year Mrs. Friedel had lived at the Maples of Towson.

A memorial Mass will be offered at 4 p.m. Jan. 27 in the chapel at Stella Maris Hospice, 2300 Dulaney Valley Road, Lutherville.

In addition to Ms. Manley, she is survived by another daughter, Mary Colleen Friedel Villamater of Lutherville; three grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by two daughters: Mary Pat Friedel in 1958 and Anne Marie Friedel in 1962.

—?Frederick N. Rasmussen