05/29/2026
Rosemary Remsberg, “Sam” to most, passed away peacefully on May 26, 2026, at Fairhaven in Sykesville, Maryland, following a short hospital stay related to chronic heart failure. She was 79 years old.
Rosemary was born Rosemary McElroy in Rhode Island on June 4, 1946, to Joseph McElroy and Helen May McElroy (née Hart), the youngest of four children. When she was ten years old, her family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida for better weather. In her teenage years she worked with her mom, by then a widower, cleaning and preparing motel guest rooms. At 21, Sam moved to Maryland, at the invitation of her brother Dave, in search of greater opportunity and a brighter future. Not long after arriving, she met the love of her life, Philip Remsberg (Phil), at a St. Patrick’s Day party. They knew right away that they were meant for one another and were engaged and married within nine months - on December 14, 1968 - beginning a marriage and partnership that would last nearly six decades.
Together, Sam and Phil shared a life filled with adventure, travel, and deep devotion to family. Early in Phil’s career, they spent four memorable years stationed in Melbourne, Australia, where they immersed themselves in local culture and welcomed their daughter, Kimberly (fortuitously also on St. Patrick’s Day!). Upon returning to the United States, they eventually settled in West Laurel, Maryland, where they built a loving home and later welcomed their son, Daniel. She and Phil traveled extensively over the years, visiting far-off destinations including Hong Kong, Fiji, Montserrat, Spain, and taking a memorable cross-country train trip across Canada.
Sam remained part of the West Laurel community for close to 40 years and was an active member of the GFWC Woman’s Club of Laurel in the 2000s. She also loved taking Pilates classes at The Magnificent Body, where she enjoyed both the exercise and the friendships she made there. Sam also appreciated life’s smaller pleasures — especially a well-made Manhattan, always served “not in a stemmed glass.”
As a mother, Sam was deeply present in the lives of her children. She volunteered at school functions, served as a Girl Scout leader, and could always be found cheering from the sidelines at sporting events. She encouraged individuality and approached parenting with equal parts practicality, humor, and unconditional love — whether that meant allowing a questionable royal blue sixth-grade graduation suit or accompanying her underage son to get his first tattoo because, as she reasoned, if he was going to do it anyway, it was better done safely!
Sam also nurtured in her children a love of animals and the natural world. Over the years the family home included a cat, guinea pigs, hamsters, a parakeet, and even an anole lizard that required regular trips to the pet store for live crickets. Injured and orphaned animals often found refuge under her care, including baby rabbits rescued after their mother was killed by a lawn mower, baby birds, and box turtles. Caring for people and animals came naturally to her. Years later, after successfully undergoing treatment for breast cancer, Sam adopted a beloved Shih Tzu puppy that she named Wicket, who quickly became her constant companion and the center of family jokes that she may have loved him even more than her children. She was heartbroken when he passed away after many happy years by her side.
Sam was an endlessly social person who never met a stranger. Much to the occasional embarrassment of her teenage children, she would strike up conversations with anyone — in grocery store aisles, checkout lines at TJ Maxx, restaurants, or waiting rooms. She was clever, curious, and intellectually engaged throughout her life, despite never completing college. She loved reading, crossword puzzles and watching Jeopardy. She was witty, observant, and far sharper than she ever gave herself credit for.
Creative and expressive, even as a young woman, Sam sewed many of her own clothes, wrote poetry, drew, and experimented with countless hairstyles over the decades. Throughout her life she stayed imaginative, productive, and distinctly herself, keeping journals, diaries and detailed calendar notes, painting, crafting, creating Zentangle art and composing long and lively newsletters, both personally, for the holidays, and professionally, for BCT LLC, where she enjoyed several years of rewarding part-time work.
Sam endured many hardships throughout her life with amazing resilience. She survived breast cancer, a serious car accident, broken bones, and numerous physical setbacks. She was open with her children about the difficulties and financial hardship of her early life, hoping to teach them tenacity and remind them that challenging times do not last forever.
Sam spent the last six years of her life at Fairhaven in Sykesville, MD. During her early years there she enjoyed taking part in activities like Wii bowling, shuffleboard, Scrabble and weekly “Winers” gatherings on the common lawn with friends and neighbors.
In her later years, declining health gradually narrowed the vibrant world she had once embraced so fully. As memory issues, COPD, chronic pain, and depression took their toll, much of the spark and adventurous spirit that had defined her began to fade. This was deeply painful for those who loved her, especially her devoted husband Phil, who never stopped encouraging her to engage with the world around her. Even during those difficult years, her family still caught glimpses of the funny, creative, intelligent woman they had always known and loved.
Those who knew Sam will remember her warmth, humor, creativity, penchant for stubbornness and her fierce love for Phil, her kids, their spouses, and her grandkids. Her family will miss her deeply but take comfort in knowing that after many difficult years, she is finally at peace.
Sam is survived by her loving husband Phil; her daughter Kimberly Joy, and her husband Martin of Washington, DC; her son Daniel Philip, his wife Marisa, and her grandsons Jackson Bennett and Everett Daniel, all of Roswell, GA; and her brother David McElroy of South Carolina. She was predeceased by her sister Pat Morrison and her brother Joseph McElroy.
In lieu of flowers the family ask for donations to be made to The Humane Society of Carroll County, MD.
Services will be private.
Online condolences at www.Burrier-Queen.com.
ON LOSING A LOVED ONE
The daylight fades
As night draws nigh
I sit alone…
Alone to cry.
Oh how I wish that you were near,
To hold my hand and calm my fear.
I’ll sit here ‘til the break of dawn,
And wish that I, too, might be gone.
Then I’ll stand and dry my eyes
And look into the morning skies,
I’ll smile and whisper to the sun,
Forgive me God…Thy will be done.
-Rosemary McElroy, 1-23-1964
Online Condolences at www.Burrier-Queen.com.
