Alice Jean (nee Bixler) DeGroff, 92, of Sykesville, died March 14, 2026.

She was the youngest of eight children of the late Oscar C. Bixler and the late Florence M. Nusbaum Bixler. She was the wife of the late Dwight H. DeGroff, Jr., her husband of 57 years. She was a telephone operator for the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company working in Westminster MD and during the summer working in Ocean City MD where she met her husband. After 20 years traveling across the country as the wife of a career Navy man, she settled in Carroll County and continued to raise their family and also working as a cafeteria aide at Sandy Mount Elementary for several years.

She enjoyed a wide variety of activities; including traveling and taking cruises with her husband (visiting all the United States except Alaska, Cuba, Okinawa, and many Caribbean and European ports), needlepoint, sewing, quilting, and painting, and learning about her family genealogy. Most of all she enjoyed visiting her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

She was a 40-year member of Sandy Mount United Methodist Church.

Surviving are children Dwight and wife Elizabeth, David and wife Elizabeth, and Christopher and wife Lois; grandchildren Dwight and wife Gwen, Rachael and husband Ross, Anna and husband Josiah, Gregory, Katherine, Andrew, Ryan, and Katheryn; and great-grandchildren Dwight, Levi, Lucy, Claire, Genevieve, Jacob, and Michael. She is pre-deceased by her siblings Wilbur (Jake), Charles (Dolph), Harry (Ed), Arthur, Mary (Mattie), Robert (Bob), and Betty.

The family will receive friends from 10-11 a.m. on Friday, March 20, 2026 at Fletcher Funeral & Cremation Services, 254 East Main Street, Westminster, MD.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on March 20, 2026 at funeral home with Pastor Herbert Reisig, Jr., of Emerge Church in Hanover, PA officiating. Interment will be at Meadow Branch Church of the Brethren Cemetery in Westminster.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent either to Sandy Mount United Methodist Church, 2101 Old Westminster Pike, Finksburg, MD or St. Jude Children's Hospital – St. Jude Tribute Program, P.O. Box 1000, Dept. 142, Memphis, TN 38148-0142