Longtime resident Katharine M. Gillespie of Falls Church City passed away peacefully at home on Dec. 19, 2008 of cancer.
A proud native of Glenville, W. Va., her widowed mother moved the family to Huntington, W. Va. during the Depression. Katharine and her older brother Angelo Eagon both graduated with honors from Huntington High School. She married her high school sweetheart after graduation in 1936.
Her family moved to southern California after WWII, returning to this area in 1950, as her brother was working at the U.S. State Department. She lived in one of Mr. Seay’s huge Victorian home which had a separate apartment upstairs where Madison Elementary School teacher Isla Worsham lived. The house was later destroyed to make room for the expansion of the Columbia Baptist Church.
Upon entering the working world a few years before her husband’s death in 1971, she worked for First Virginia Bank and then in the Water Department of Falls Church City Public Works Department, where she became a well-known personality at City Hall. Born on Nov.1 – All Saint’s Day – every year, she had great fun “blessing” all her co-workers and friends.
She loved cooking, gardening, music, golf, the Redskins and had a national network of friends whom she constantly nurtured.
Survivors include her daughter Tiana Camfioard of Clifton, son Phillip Eagon Gillespie of Annandale, grandsons Jason and Nathan Camfiord and two more grandchildren, all in Northern Virginia.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Jan. 3 at 1 p.m. at Advent Funeral Services, located at 7211 Lee Highway in Falls Church. A reception will follow. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made out to: Capitol Hospice, 6565 Arlington Boulevard, #500, Falls Church, VA, 22042.
