Obituaries

Najla Showker Linguistics Professor

Najla Showker, 98, a retired professor of French and linguistics, who was well known in Washington's Arab American community, died Oct. 28 of respiratory failure at the Washington Home hospice in the District.

Mrs. Showker, who was born Najla Choucair in Beirut, was a member of Lebanon's Druze community. She attended American, English and French schools in Lebanon and was fluent in English, French, Arabic and Spanish.

As a young bride in the 1920s, she moved to Kingsport, Tenn., where her husband, Saleem Showker, had business interests. After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1936, Mrs. Showker helped found Kingsport's chapter of the League of Women Voters and eventually became the organization's Tennessee state president. She also founded a chapter of Beta Sigma Phi, a women's service society.

After her husband's death in 1958, Mrs. Showker completed her education, graduating from East Tennessee State University in 1962. She received a master's degree in linguistics from Georgetown University in 1964 and taught Arabic and linguistics at the university. She did additional work toward a doctorate at Georgetown, the Sorbonne in Paris and Laval University in Quebec City.

From 1964 to 1966, Mrs. Showker lived in Beirut and was assistant editor on a project to produce an English-Arabic dictionary. She conducted research on Arabic definitions of English words.

She taught for a year at the old Mount Vernon Junior College in Washington before returning to East Tennessee State, where she taught linguistics, English and French language, literature and history until her retirement in the 1980s.

Mrs. Showker then settled in Washington, where she became a fixture in the Lebanese and Arab American communities and was known for her hospitality and Lebanese cooking. At age 90, she received an award for lifetime community service from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Survivors include two daughters, Selwa "Lucky" Roosevelt, the U.S. chief of protocol under President Ronald Reagan, of Washington, and Kay Showker of New York; a brother; a grandson; and two great-grandchildren.

-- Matt Schudel