Laura Sessions Stepp

She had bravely fought dementia for nearly a decade, with her trademark world-class smile and warmth. Even when the disease robbed her of the ability to speak, she conveyed her love and grace with caring looks, affectionate hugs and a happy face.

She spent a nationally respected career as a writer and editor, for the Palm Beach Post, the Philadelphia Bulletin, the Charlotte Observer, and – for 25 years – the Washington Post. In Charlotte in 1980, she led a team of reporters and editors whose report on brown lung disease (“A Case of Deadly Neglect”) won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal. Later she authored Our Last Best Shot, about raising adolescents, and Unhooked, about young women’s relationships. It was frequently said that she could talk to anyone about anything, and learn their real stories because she was so genuinely interested in hearing them.

She was born in 1951 in Van Buren, Ark., to Robert Sessions and Martha Rae Rutledge Sessions. She graduated from Buckhannon, W. Va., high school, Earlham College, and Columbia University, with a master’s in journalism. She spent a year as an exchange student in Germany and never lost her love for traveling.

One of her favorite stories was about the day she visited what was then East Berlin and became stranded, without enough money for the fare back to the West. A friendly streetcleaner gave her the money she needed, and told her to tell the people in the West that not everyone in the East was the enemy.

After a first marriage to Robert King, she married Carl Stepp in 1981, and they chose to use both their names – Laura Sessions Stepp and Carl Sessions Stepp – in their professional lives. She was a loving and devoted mother to Jeffrey Stepp and kind stepmother to Ashli Stepp Calvert and Amber Stepp, and adored grandsons Max, Tanner and Tucker.

She enjoyed reading and music, and proudly sang at the Kennedy Center concert hall with the Encore Creativity senior singers. She was a tough investigative journalist who cried at cheesy movies and was never mean to anyone. In over 43 years of marriage to Carl, she raised her voice at him maybe twice. Maybe.

She attended Dumbarton Methodist Church in Washington and later Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Falls Church, Va.

She is survived by her children and grandchildren and by her three younger sisters: Teresa Kramer, Kathy Sessions and Sarah Lundal, along with her stepmother Julia Sessions and a host of nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Life service will take place at 1 p.m. Monday, March 3, at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 3022 Woodlawn Ave, in Falls Church, followed by burial at National Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be sent to the Alzheimer’s Association.