Virginia Irene Lloyd

Virginia Irene (Ash) Lloyd\n \n \n \nVirginia came into this world on Christmas Day, 1925 in Stamford, Conn., and returned to her Maker peacefully in her sleep on Monday, August 9, 2010 at her home in Columbia, MD. She was born to Matthew H. Ash and Ethel May (Shuttleworth) Ash and grew up in Old Greenwich, Conn., along with her brother Donald P. Ash and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins, many of whom lived in adjacent houses, and her best friend Betty Hawkins. She loved visiting her grandparents (Agnes Ann (Pearson) and John Shuttleworth) in Stamford, Conn. and other relatives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY.\n \n \n \nShe attended Old Greenwich Grammar School (1939) and the College Preparatory track at Greenwich High School (with Junior Honors, 1943), and continued on to technical training as a laboratory assistant in New York City. She worked for Atlas Powder and American Cyanamide, where she performed lab tests, which led to the development of the ubiquitous diuretic medication, Lasix, which both she and her husband Archie E. Lloyd of Everett, WA depended on in their last years. She met Archie at Jug End Barn in the Berkshires of Western Mass., while he attended King’s Point Merchant Marine Academy (graduated 1944). Although his career in the Navy during World War II and the Korean War, as well as being a Navigator for Grace Lines, kept him at sea, he continued to court her on his frequent port calls to New York City throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s.\n \nArchie settled on a career at the US Navy Hydrographic (later Oceanographic) Office in Suitland, MD, and they married on June 6, 1953 in Old Greenwich, Conn., and moved to District Heights, MD, where she lived for the next 52 years. She worked as a secretary at Andrews AFB before her children were born and at various jobs after they were in junior high, and worked extra hours at a local drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic to make sure that her sons graduated from Prince George’s Community College, Messiah College and Seattle Pacific University (William) and Yale College, the University of Munich and Harvard University (Steven).\n \nShe spent most of her adult life devoted to numerous organizations and causes, including the District Heights Homemakers (and eventually also the Prince George’s Co. and Maryland state home extension groups), various PTA associations, a founding member of the Women’s Alliance at the Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church, various other church groups (Church Board, choir, Greeters, Memorial Committee and Endowment Committee), the Cuties, annual church fall bazaar, Neighborhood Watch, and a variety of political and neighborhood causes in District Heights, MD. There was never a local or church event that she did not attend, often as the first person in the kitchen and one of the last to leave afterwards to attend to refreshments and make sure that everyone was accommodated.\n \nShe was a virtuosic pianist, who played hymns at her church youth group in Stamford, Conn., occasionally at Davies and as a substitute pianist at Bradburn Memorial Methodist Church in District Heights, MD. For the last half of her life she was devoted to caring for her husband Archie, who died in 1983 of complications arising from diabetes, and a host of elderly women, including her mother Ethel, her Aunts Mildred Shuttleworth and Emily Smith of Stamford, Conn., and neighbors Gerry Brown, Ethel Harrell, Emily Robey and Betty Bailey. She was always available to take her friends shopping, to the doctor’s, or to get their hair done. She also had a special fondness for cats, who seemed to adopt her at every opportunity.\n \n \n \nVirginia, known as “Sis” to her side of the family and “Ginny” to Archie’s side, is survived by her older son William Allen Lloyd of Upper Marlboro, MD and his wife Joyce, and her younger son Steven Andrew Lloyd of Columbia, MD and his partner David Kincaid, and grandchildren Christina Elizabeth (Lloyd) Strickland, Matthew Benjamin Lloyd (both of Houston, TX) and David Andrew Lloyd of Upper Marlboro, MD, and great granddaughter Morgan Strickland of Houston, TX.\n \n \n \nPublic viewing will be at the Lee Funeral Home, Clinton, MD at 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm on Friday, August 13, followed by a family interment at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Suitland MD at 10:00 am on Saturday, August 14. A celebration of her life will be held on a future weekend (TBD) at Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church, 7400 Temple Hills Rd., Camp Springs, MD.\n \nPlease make donations in lieu of flowers to Alley Cat Allies, 7920 Norfolk Ave., Ste. 600, Bethesda, MD 20814, or the ASPCA or your local animal shelter. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Virginia Irene Lloyd please visit our Sympathy Store.