Never happier than when giving a party, she also for 25 years organized a "Phantom Dinner" which people subscribed to knowing there would be no real event. The "dinners" raised about a million dollars for the House of Mercy, a Washington charity est. 1882 to help unwed mothers but which by the 70's, as needs changed, supported the Rosemount model preschool program for inner city kids. In 1991, when the "Phantom of the Opera" came to town, Martha sold out a night's performance for the charity and organized a real dinner preceding the show.
She was the director of GEICO's employee communications -- editing a prize-winning magazine and many pamphlets. She wrote "Breast Cancer and You" and a Gothic mystery, "The Bethnal Inheritance," articles for the Post and Star, and a best-selling government publication on the safety of breast implants. She was president of the Intl. Assoc. of Business Communicators/ DC Metro and of the House of Mercy.
