Obituaries

Nancy Brelsford ThawleyRepublican Party Fundraiser

Nancy Brelsford Thawley, 74, a longtime Republican Party fundraiser and activist, died of pneumonia Jan. 8 at George Washington University Hospital. She was a resident of the District.

Mrs. Thawley was born in Houston and attended Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a member of Pi Phi Sorority. She became involved in Texas Republican Party efforts in the 1960s, serving as state Republican committeewoman and vice chair of the Harris County Republican Party. She worked closely with Houston congressman and future president George H.W. Bush.

She moved to Washington with her family in the early 1970s and joined the Republican National Committee in 1975 as a member of the finance division. She worked with then-Finance Chairman Jeremiah Milbank, Buckley M. Byers and William J. McManus in establishing the Repubican Eagle program, a national organization of individual major contributors. She served under seven national party chairmen and six national finance chairmen, raising funds in every election cycle from 1976 through 1998.

During the 1995-96 election cycle, she directed major contributor programs for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She retired in 1998 as director of finance for Republican Eagles.

Mrs. Thawley was active in the National Federation of Republican Women and the Junior Leagues of Houston and Washington.

Her marriage to Tom Thawley ended in divorce.

Survivors include a daughter, Virginia Elizabeth Thawley of the District; and two grandchildren.

Graciela "Chela" OlsenSpanish Teacher

Graciela "Chela" Olsen, who taught Spanish at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School from 1986 to 1992 and was a former co-head of the Georgetown Garden Tour, died of respiratory failure Jan. 8 at Winchester Gardens at Ward Homestead in Maplewood, N.J. She was 82.

Mrs. Olsen also taught Spanish at Coolidge High School in the District from 1967 to 1971 and was a board member of the former Georgetown Children's House.

She was born Graciela Virginia Gamio in Lima, Peru, and came to the United States in 1941 to attend college. She graduated in 1945 from Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y.

She married Arthur J. Olsen in 1950, and the couple moved to Washington the next year. She lived overseas during her husband's assignments as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times from 1955 to 1965 and his diplomatic postings with the U.S. Foreign Service, including acting U.S. ambassador to Sweden and deputy chief of mission in Belgium, from 1971 to 1980.

Mrs. Olsen was known for her abilities as a hostess when she and her husband lived in Bonn, Germany; Warsaw; Buenos Aires; Stockholm; Brussels and, from 1980, Georgetown, when her husband joined the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.