Lyra H. Kardas, CIA language teacher

Lyra H. Kardas, 85, who taught French, Portuguese and Arabic at the CIA and served as an interpreter and translator for the spy agency, died Sept. 7 at Manor Care hospice in Arlington County. She had Parkinson’s disease.

The death was confirmed by her son Edward Kardas Jr.

Mrs. Kardas was born Lyra Hassan in Rome to an Egyptian father and Italian mother. She graduated from the American University in Cairo and became a U.S. citizen after marrying Edward P. Kardas in 1947.

She accompanied her husband on his Foreign Service assignments throughout North Africa and South America before settling in the Washington area in the early 1960s. She was an Arlington resident.

She worked for the CIA from 1965 to 2005 and was a recipient of the Career Intelligence Medal.

Her husband died in 1993.

Survivors include two sons, Edward Kardas Jr. of Magnolia, Ark., and Michael Kardas of Arlington; and three grandchildren.

— Adam Bernstein