Loretta P. Kennan

Loretta P. Kennan was born in Weyers Cave, VA on April 18, 1930 and grew up on the family farm in Middlebrook, Va. She died May 9 at Goodwin House in Alexandria, VA. After finishing business school, she worked in Charlottesville, VA where she met her husband, Ralph Hyde Kennan. After he was drafted in the Army and sent to Germany, she joined him there. They remained in Germany for nearly a decade when her husband began his journalism career. While there, she became the Executive Assistant to the Comptroller General of the Armed Forces in Western Europe.

The family returned to the U.S. first living in Baltimore while her husband was a foreign correspondent for the Baltimore Sun in Viet Nam and then an editor. The family moved to Bethesda, MD when Mr. Kennan became the Sun’s Washington Bureau’s assistant managing editor and then managing editor for Scripps-Howard. In Washington, she began her career as the office manager for a large cardiologist practice in Chevy Chase, MD. In retirement, she moved to Silver Spring and was active in the LeisureWorld Democratic Club. She will be remembered for her unfailing kindness and generosity to others, an independent streak, her love of entertaining and reading, and witty one-liners. She is survived by her daughter, Stephanie of Washington, D.C., a sister, Carolyn Miller of Staunton, VA, numerous cousins, a niece and nephews. A service will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Ivy, VA when it is

possible to do so. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to So Others Might Eat or to local food banks.