Christine Elizabeth Carswell, a retired Agriculture Department administrator who became an advocate for the treatment of alcoholism, died July 2 of complications from a fall at Estelle’s House Hospice in Ocala, Fla.

The former Westminster resident was 84.

Christine Elizabeth Harmony, who was known as Betty, was born in Baltimore County. She was the daughter of Albert Harmony, a shepherd who tended the flock at Druid Hill Park, and his wife, Mary Ann Herring.

As a child, she lived in Ashland and Cockeysville, and was a 1952 graduate of Towson High School.

As a high school student she worked at a York Road variety store. Upon her graduation, she joined the Air Force and was assigned to a base at Pensacola, Fla.

“My mother was not tall, she was just 5 feet. The Air Force soon had her climbing radio towers and making repairs,” said her daughter, Regina Duncan of Maui, Hawaii. “She loved the Air Force, and she did what she was told.

“In the military, she took firearms training and became an accomplished sharpshooter,” her daughter said. “She had grown up as a child of the Depression, and she often accompanied her father, who shot squirrels and rabbits so they could eat dinner.”

Family members said she became a military chauffeur and drove officers to assignments.

Her sister, Mary Sickle, recalled that when she returned to Maryland on leave she enjoyed skating at Carlin’s Park.

“She also liked to go to the wrestling matches at the old Coliseum,” her sister said.

After she left military service, she remained in the reserves for several years.

“My mother liked a challenge,” said her daughter. “The other mothers in our neighborhood were stay-at-home, but my mother was a working woman. She was driven and task-oriented.”

She settled in Berwyn Heights and joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a secretary. She rose through the agency’s ranks, becoming an administrator in its personnel section.

While working, Mrs. Carswell enrolled at Prince George’s Community College and earned an associate’s degree.

“She believed in schooling and took all the courses she could,” said her sister. “She was businesslike and liked being a boss. She would work hard to organize things she felt needed tending.”

“This was a different era, a time in the 1960s when people went out at midday and had the three-martini lunch,” said her daughter. “She worked in personnel and she realized the toll that alcoholism was taking. She wanted to see people keep their jobs and get the help they needed.”

Her daughter said Mrs. Carswell was instrumental in the creation and oversight of the USDA’s first employee assistance program.

“While my mother was proud of her military service, she was most proud of the assistance program that offered counseling and hope to alcoholics,” her daughter said. “She knew the impact a job loss would have and cared about its impact on the health of the drinker and the families involved.”

She retired about 30 years ago, then traveled throughout the U.S. in a camper with her pets.

“She was a good driver and took to the roads,” said her daughter. “Her dogs went everywhere she did.”

Mrs. Carswell moved to Lucabaugh Mill Road in Westminster in 1985 and volunteered in a community drug and alcohol treatment program.

“Helping people was really personal to her, and she could not stay in a place where she was not working,” said her daughter.

She moved to Ocala in 2005 and lived near her two sisters.

Plans for a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery are incomplete.

In addition to her daughter and sister, survivors include another daughter, Christine Michienzi of Washington; another sister, Florence Alvina Sickle of Ocala; and two grandsons. Her husband of 34 years, Robert Edward Carswell, died in 2010. She was previously married to Michael John Masterson.

jacques.kelly@baltsun.com