Eleanor Voda Steen

Eleanor V. Steen, 80 years of age, passed away peacefully last week in her home in Vienna, VA. Beloved wife of the late Stuart M. Steen, Sr., she is survived by her daughter Linda S. Martin and her husband Vincent of Niceville, FL, her son Stuart M. Steen, Jr. and his wife Amy of Fairfax, VA, her son Bruce M. Steen and his wife Elaine of Charlotte, NC. Affectionately known as Grammy, Aurelia or Roo, she also is survived by her seven grandchildren, Kristy and her husband Nate, Travis and his wife Christin, Stuart III, Caleb, Ethan, Isabel and Jared, and her three great grandchildren Dylan, Ellie and Ava. Born in Queens, NY in 1933 to Hungarian parents, she did not speak English until she entered elementary school. She was a beautiful young woman who met the handsome young naval officer Stuart, who later would become her husband, on a blind date at the Rainbow Room at the top of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. They soon married and raised their family in New York, Connecticut, Arizona, Florida and northern Virginia. They traveled the world together until Stuart’s death in 1998. She was a wonderful cook and enjoyed needlepoint, and retired in 1996 after a career at the Central Intelligence Agency, where she received the Career Intelligence Medal for Exceptional Achievement. She also was an active volunteer at Laurel Ridge Elementary School in Fairfax. A mass of Christian burial will be held at 3 p.m., Friday, September 12, at the St. Mary’s Historic Catholic Church, Ox Road and Fairfax Station Road, Fairfax, VA. Interment will follow at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery, where she will be laid to rest with her husband. Friends may call from 6-8 p.m., Thursday, September 11, at the Everly/Demaine Funeral Home, 10565 Main St., Fairfax, VA. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN. 38105, www.stjude.org, or the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22718, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73123, https://donate.cancer.org.