Ethel B. Woods passed away at Advent Hospital East early in the evening of Thursday, January 9, 2020. Ethel was the 7th of 9 children born to Wallace and Garcie Bowen. She is survived by Aiko, her Akita dog, Norma Leanne Leonard, her only child, Francis X. Leonard, her son-in-law of 23 years, Stephen Lee Leonard, her grandson and apple of her eye, Ray, her daughter’s Bassett hound, as well as step-grandchildren Jennifer Barry, Lisa Whitmire and her husband Kelly, Bridget Tull and her husband Rob, Francis X Leonard, Jr, Melody Bertram-Rondeau and her husband Mike, and Danny Bertram and his wife Kelly, step-grandchildren Tyler and Avery Whitmire, Audrey Howe and Quinten Tull, Kaygen Echelbarger and Addison Leonard, Aidan Rondeau, and Tyler and Greyson Bertram, and too many nieces, nephews, and cousins to mention.
Ethel was born, November 15, 1939, in Farmington, NM, was raised in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, and led a life full of travel and adventure in California, Okinawa, Tokyo, Hawaii, Massachusetts, the Washington, D.C. metro area, Tennessee, and Florida, thanks to her husband’s 4 years in the U. S. Coast Guard, 27 years in the U. S. Army, and his love for striped bass fishing. Throughout her life, she made friends everywhere she lived, worked, and worshiped. Despite a sweet and positive disposition, she knew how to stand her ground and how to navigate both military and government organizations like a Commodore. She held jobs as a store check-out clerk and accounting in the back office, and in banking from teller to credit union loan officer, all of which she parlayed into work as a Finance Analyst at prestigious institutions like the National War College, the Pentagon, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. At DIA, she earned the coveted Black Hat award—rarely given to a civilian, for her contribution capturing and bringing to justice traders to our country, as dramatized in the Hollywood movie “Family of Spies”.
She raised a daughter—sometimes by herself, carted the family dog all over the world, maintained the accumulated relationships she and her husband made from throughout their lives, had at least two careers, and still found time to exercise and be a devoted Christian.
She and her husband moved to their daughter’s home in Florida when more help was needed because of failing health. Less than two months after moving, Ethel endured emergency, open heart surgery to replace her mitral valve, 2 months after that, she had spine surgery to remove a tumor. She fought back from that trauma for almost two years before her lungs and heart succumbed to failure.
She is beloved and will be missed terribly by all. Her cremains will be inurned at Arlington National Cemetery with her husband at a future date.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.11.3