Sunday, March 16, 2008
Marian Ferris McKimmieHomemaker
Marian Ferris McKimmie, 90, a homemaker, died Feb. 26 of cardiopulmonary disease at the Virginian, a retirement community in Fairfax.
She was born in the District in the home her family, proprietors of the Ferris Ice Co., had owned since the Civil War. She raised her own family in the house until 1957, when she moved to Prince George's County. She also lived in Capital Heights, Upper Marlboro, Rockville and Vienna before moving to Fairfax in 2003.
Except for a brief period of employment with Palais Royale, a District department store, she was a homemaker. "Her home, her husband and her kids meant everything to her," a son said.
Her husband, John McKimmie Jr., died in 1972. A daughter, Joyce Thompson, died in 1992.
Survivors include three children, John McKimmie III of Lothian, Warren McKimmie of Harpers Ferry, Va., and Kathy Voorhis of Vienna; nine grandchildren; and 22 great-grandchildren.
-- Joe Holley
Mabel Irene Conley BarrowsTutor, Ambassador's Wife
Mabel Irene Conley Barrows, 97, a tutor and Foreign Service wife, died of multiple organ failure Feb. 24 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda.
Mrs. Barrows tutored from 1969 until 1999 in English and mathematics, first for the Kingsbury Center in Washington and later on a freelance basis. She also devoted time to the French Group of the American Association of Foreign Service Wives.
She was born in Cleveland, Kan., attended Fort Hays State Teachers College and graduated from the University of Kansas, where she also received a master's degree in world literature in 1935. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
After marrying, she moved to the Washington area, where she worked in secretarial positions in the federal government, including as confidential secretary to the chairman of the Civil Service Board.
After 1948, Mrs. Barrows accompanied her husband to diplomatic posts in Paris, Rome, Athens and Saigon, where she developed skills as a hostess and official spouse. The family returned to Washington in 1958. In 1960, her husband was named U.S. ambassador to Cameroon, where they lived until 1966.
Returning to the United States, they lived for three years in Pittsburgh. In 1969, they returned to Washington.
Her husband, Leland Barrows, died in 1988.
Survivors include two children, Leland Conley Barrow of Denmark, S.C., and Jennifer Golden of Washington; and a granddaughter.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Walter Cosby Bonner Jr.Supply Chief
Walter Cosby Bonner Jr., 84, a retired official at the National Bureau of Standards, died of congestive heart failure Feb. 25 at Loyalton of Hagerstown, where he lived.
Mr. Bonner was section chief of the supply division at the standards bureau, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He worked there for more than 35 years, retiring in 1979. He also worked at Woodward & Lothrop as a salesman and at an icehouse in Gaithersburg during the early 1960s.
After he left the National Bureau of Standards, he again worked in sales at Woodward & Lothrop and Hecht Co. stores, selling linens and lighting supplies until 1991.
In retirement, Mr. Bonner worked in the pro shop and on the driving range of Montgomery County's Northwest Golf Course until 2004.
He was born in Hot Springs, Va., and served in the Army during World War II in the Pacific theater and later in Japan. He moved to Arlington County shortly before the war and returned there after he was discharged, but he spent most of his life in Rockville, where he lived from 1960 through 2005.
He was an usher at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Kensington for many years and was a member of Kensington Masonic Lodge. He enjoyed golf, playing cards, dancing, bowling, reading and watching westerns on television.
His wife of 48 years, Mary "Polly" Polhamus Bonner, died in 2002.
Survivors include four children, Betty Jo Bonner of Hagerstown, Sheri Bonner Mastromatteo of Pasadena, Calif., Ed Bonner of Rochester, N.Y., and Susie Bonner Tighe of Los Gatos, Calif.; and seven grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan
Charles T. JacobsCIA Officer
Charles T. Jacobs, 81, a retired intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency, died Feb. 22 of cancer at Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg.
Mr. Jacobs was born in Gaithersburg and graduated from the Charlotte Hall School, a military school in St. Mary's County that closed in 1976. After serving in the Army in Japan, he graduated from the University of Maryland in 1976.
He then joined the CIA and served in the Washington area and Frankfurt, Germany. He was an authority on overhead reconnaissance systems and retired as a senior intelligence officer in 1988. He received the Intelligence Medal of Merit.
Mr. Jacobs was a knowledgeable amateur historian of the Civil War and co-founded the Montgomery County Civil War Round Table in 1998. He was a volunteer Civil War historian for the Montgomery County Historical Society, for which he wrote the "Civil War Guide to Montgomery County, Maryland." He often spoke about the war to civic and historical organizations and served as a tour guide to Civil War sites in Montgomery.
He was a member of the Central Intelligence Retirees' Association, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and the Charlotte Hall alumni association.
He lived in Washington Grove before moving to Asbury Methodist Village in 1998.
His wife of 42 years, Marian Waters Jacobs, died in 1995.
Survivors include two daughters, Ann Laskodi of San Jose, Calif., and Mary Beth Fleming of Frederick; and four grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel
Gertrude KellyEditor
Gertrude Clark Blackwood Kelly, 83, who worked for 20 years as an editor for two medical institutes, died March 9 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda of complications after hip-joint surgery. She lived in Bethesda.
From the 1970s until 1998, Mrs. Kelly worked in the Office of the Director at the National Institutes of Health and then with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, both in Bethesda.
Mrs. Kelly was born in Pittsburgh. From the University of Pittsburgh, she received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in 1948, both in psychology.
She began working in 1946 as an instructor in psychology at West Virginia University and married a year later.
She and her husband lived in Pittsburgh, Eastchester, N.Y., and then Bethesda.
As a young woman, she assisted her father in editing and publishing his physics textbooks. She worked with her physicist husband in a similar way throughout the early years of their marriage.
Mrs. Kelly enjoyed playing bridge, learning to use her computer more proficiently, and keeping up with activities of her family and friends. She was a member of the Bethesda United Church of Christ and the American Medical Writers Association.
Survivors include her husband, William C. Kelly of Bethesda; two children, Emily K. Szumowski of Northbrook, Ill., and William B. Kelly of St. Petersburg, Fla.; and three grandchildren.
-- Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb