Molly Coleman

She was born in Wheeling, WV, on 31-July-1929 the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Edward Charles Armbrecht.

Molly attended Mt Vernon Jr. College in Washington, DC, and then went to Goucher College in Baltimore Maryland, where she studied Early Childhood Education and graduated in 1950.

She married Gerard (Jerry) Coleman, also of Wheeling, 6-July-1951 and took on the role of a Navy wife, moving around the country as his assignments took them. During those years, she raised a family of five children.

After Jerry retired, the family moved to Virginia, where she took a position with the Smithsonian Museum as a docent in the Asian Studies department of the Natural History Museum. She also provided school programs where she performed the Japanese Tea Ceremony for students, sharing the culture of Japan.

Molly and Jerry moved to Annapolis, Maryland in 1984, where they could dock their sailboat, and spent happy days sailing around the Chesapeake Bay with friends in various sailing clubs. Jerry referred to her as his “perfect shipmate”. Not content with just the Bay, the two of them sailed up and down the East Coast from New England to Miami, and even several times to the Bahamas.

Molly was active in the Maryland Federation of the Arts, and took up pottery, and oil painting.

Molly and Jerry traveled the world. On one of their European trips, they explored family history in Germany, meeting family four generations removed. On another trip to China, in 1988, with a Smithsonian Museum expedition, she saw many of the Chinese sites long before many other Americans were privileged to see them.

Molly is survived by her brother, Edward C. Armbrecht, Jr., five children, Gerard(Gary) Jr., Kathryn, Jeffery, Elizabeth(Lisa) and David); 14 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and countless nieces, nephews and cousins.

A Celebration of Molly’s Life will be held at Ginger Cove on 13-November, and she will be inurned at the US Naval Academy Columbarium, on 14-November.

Donations in her name can be made to Maryland Federation of Art, on their website: MDFEDART.COM