Obituaries

Mrs. Fairman was born Virginia Dee Seaton in Kansas City, Mo. In the mid-1930s, she received an associate's degree from what was then the University of Kansas City.

In 1942, during World War II, she moved with her mother to Arlington and began work as a clerk-typist at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria. She also worked for the Department of the Army at the Pentagon before joining the National Park Service, an agency of the Interior Department.

At the Park Service, she helped prepare manuscripts for publication. She became a history buff and enjoyed visiting parks and historic sites she had learned about in the course of her work. She retired in the late 1970s.

Mrs. Fairman was a 55-year member of Walker Chapel United Methodist Church in Arlington, and she enjoyed putting her sewing and cooking skills to work on behalf of church fundraisers.

Survivors include her husband of 55 years, L. Eugene "Gene" Fairman of Arlington; three children, Jerry Fairman of Annandale, Larry Fairman of Palm Harbor, Fla., and Gail Fairman Chlon of Norcross, Ga.; and five grandchildren.

-- Joe Holley

Margaret Buchanan HickeyTeacher

Margaret Buchanan Hickey, 90, a former substitute teacher in Arlington County's public schools, died Dec. 28 at Brighton Gardens of Columbia senior home. She had Alzheimer's disease.

Mrs. Hickey preferred teaching math, but as a substitute teacher in the junior and senior high schools, she was assigned to any class that needed a teacher, from auto repair to art class to boys' gym. She always found a way to include a bit of mathematical theory into her classes, her sons said, believing that everyone needs to understand a little algebra.

Born in what is now Hendersonville, Tenn., she was raised on a family farm and graduated from Vanderbilt University, where she also received a master's degree in math in 1941. She taught high school math and worked for a federal government board that monitored migrant workers who moved from the rural South to the urban North.

She moved to the Washington area in 1946 and was a founding member of Arlington's Trinity Presbyterian Church. She was a member of the Williamsburg Women's Club and a volunteer for Meals on Wheels. She also traveled widely, visiting more than 40 countries.