Edith Dede Devault Palmer Palmer Dodge

Edith P. Dodge, who was born December 13, 1921 in Charleston, WV., and who died August 4, 2013 in Fort Belvoir, Va., was not content to be bounded by dates or locales. Born to Samuel A. and Helen S. Palmer, she lived and found work in what was to become wartime Alexandria, Va. She began her civil service career there with an emergency appointment to the Federal Housing Authority in 1941, helping to find homes for war workers.

It was also in Alexandria that she found John D. Dodge whom she married on October 24, 1942 and with whom she lived until his death on November 6, 1973. She worked briefly with the American Red Cross from 1943 until her husband returned from the war in 1944.

As the wife of a postwar diplomat, she was afforded the opportunity to immerse herself in the cultures and milieus of five countries across three continents. This she did, to the delight of the numerous friends she made, and to the benefit of her four children, each of whom was born in a different country — the U.S., Algeria, Costa Rica, and France.

The family returned stateside to Bethesda, Md., where she resumed her civil service career in 1962. She came to work at what was then known as the Defense Mapping Agency until her retirement in 1984, with the exception of a four-year hiatus in order to follow her husband to a second posting in Mexico from 1967 to 1971. She moved to Ft. Belvoir in 2011.

After her retirement she volunteered with Meals on Wheels, delivering meals and companionship to the elderly. The loss of her first born daughter, Palmer “Polly” at age 18 also led her to a longstanding commitment to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She is survived by three children, John (Allison) Dodge, Peter (Katherine) Dodge, and Helen (Paul) Delaney and three grandchildren, John, Jennifer, and Laurie.

It was her expressed hope that donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society are offered in lieu of flowers.