Laila Tarabulcy Khoury

Her death, at the memory care unit of Brighton Gardens of Friendship Heights in Chevy Chase, Md., came nearly eight months after that of her husband of 64 years, Freddy A. Khoury. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/washington-dc/freddy-khoury-12337196

Born Laila Tarabulcy on Aug. 4, 1931, in Alexandria, Egypt, she was the third child of Zaki and Shamsi Tarabulcy. Known as Lily, she was doted on by her two older brothers, Wasfi and Edward, and attended the Lycée Français d’Alexandrie. After graduating from high school at the English Girls’ College, where she earned many prizes, Laila worked for the World Health Organization in Alexandria.

In 1960, she came to the United States, where she married Freddy, a fellow Alexandrian who had settled in the U.S. in 1957.

They lived in Philadelphia, then moved to Washington, D.C., in 1963 when Freddy, a physicist, went to work for the federal government.

Laila became an administrative assistant for the Center for Applied Linguistics before being hired by the World Bank in 1971. Her formidable writing and translation skills served her well in a two-decade career with the organization, where she became an admissions officer for courses held for officials from various countries. Her work took her to Senegal, the Ivory Coast and Kenya.

On the home front, Laila and Freddy had twin sons, Peter and Paul (Jane), who survive her, as do two granddaughters, Nina and Christine, and several cousins.

A voracious reader, Laila was a devotee of Marcel Proust and a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She also enjoyed a good mystery and could be quite helpful when her sons had book reports due.

Laila was a multitasker before the term was popular. Even while working full-time, she at times shuttled between work and home at lunchtime to prepare meals for her ailing father-in-law.

She later relished retirement, during which she and Freddy took numerous trips to explore the West. She enjoyed occasional babysitting duties and buying dresses for Nina and Christine, her “little sweeties.” She was fun but could be firm. “No acrobatics on Teta’s watch,” she would tell them.

Laila was a proud Arab American who loved her adopted country and was a strong believer in Jesus, particularly his lessons to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and to “turn the other cheek.”

She fully embraced her life in America but never forgot the Mediterranean city where she had grown up. She would, on occasion, lament the drastic changes in the region, though she noted that certain things were timeless. “They can’t take away the sea,” she said, “and they can’t take away the sky.”

A memorial service will be scheduled later. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Everybody Wins DC, an organization dedicated to helping children in D.C. build literacy skills through one-on-one mentoring, read-aloud events, and free book distributions. We can think of no better way to honor Laila’s legacy than to encourage and inspire a new generation of readers.