Rebecca H. Pettaway, a retired laboratory assistant and church activist, died Monday of complications from a stroke at Seasons Hospice at Northwest Hospital in Randallstown. She was 92.

The daughter of farmers John Wesley Hines and Julia Bell Thompson Hines, Rebecca Hines was born and raised in Emporia, Va., where she attended public schools.

In 1941, she married Earnest A. Pettaway, and in 1958 the couple and their family moved to West Baltimore.

She completed her high school education by attending evening classes at Douglass High School, said Stephanie Johnson Pettaway, her daughter-in-law, who lives in Northwood.

Mrs. Pettaway also took courses in dressmaking, tailoring and cosmetology, said her daughter-in-law.

From 1968 until retiring in 1989, Mrs. Pettaway worked as a laboratory assistant for the Department of Public Works' Bureau of Water and Wastewater.

A longtime resident of Edgecombe Circle in the city's Park Heights neighborhood, Mrs. Pettaway joined Wayland Baptist Church in 1958 and became a member of its Temple and Concert choirs.

In 1970, the church moved to Eutaw and Dolphin streets under the auspices of City Temple of Baltimore Baptist Church. There Mrs. Pettaway continued performing with the choir.

Mrs. Pettaway was an accomplished tenpin bowler. She enjoyed road and bus trips and cruises with her sister.

She also liked to entertain family and friends, and enjoyed her family's annual reunion, as well as baking cakes and sewing.

Her husband, a foundryman with Flynn & Emrich Co., a Baltimore cast-iron foundry, died in 2002.

Funeral services for Mrs. Pettaway will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at her church, 317 Dolphin St.

In addition to her daughter-in-law, she is survived by her daughter, Rose Hamilton of Randallstown; a brother, James Hines of Emporia; a sister, Maggie Harris of Williamsburg, Va.; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Her son, Edward Pettaway, died in 2006.

— Frederick N. Rasmussen