Mary Kathryn Leidenheimer

Mary Kathryn “Kay” Leidenheimer (née Kelly, derived originally from Krehlik) was born on May 16,1931 in Peanut – a rural coal mining community in mountainous west central Pennsylvania. She was raised in neighboring Derry. The third of seven children, Kay and her siblings grew up during the Great Depression. Watching her father work first as a coal miner, later the railroad, and owning a lunch counter business gave her a strong work ethic. Her mother industriously cooked, baked, and canned while raising the kids. Kay enjoyed being outside with her much admired dad Joseph - working the garden harvest for her mother’s unending kitchen efforts. At 12 years old, with great pride, Kay took over her older brother Joe’s responsibility of firing up the coal furnace at the one-room schoolhouse behind their house. Kay was a serious student who shined academically but took business prep courses rather than college prep courses – a path that she would later travel. She joined the debate club and enjoyed researching complex issues, sharing her perspectives with others and hearing theirs.

As a young adult, Kay left Derry to join her older sister Jane in Washington D.C. where she worked her way up through the Central Intelligence Agency’s secretarial pool. She relished the cosmopolitan lifestyle and stylishly dressed the part. Initially Kay lived in a women’s dorm setting in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Throughout her life, she would periodically visit this neighborhood, fondly reliving those days. While working at the Central Intelligence Agency, she met her husband, Bob. They were married for nearly 60 years until his passing in 2017.

During their marriage, the couple had three children - Teresa, Nancy, and Bob Jr. Initially, Kay was a stay-at-home Mom, sewing dresses for the girls, making delicious healthy meals, preparing the kids for the annual children’s Halloween costume parade, and taking all the kids to various activities such as pre-school, gymnastics, and swim team. The family made regular trips back to Derry to visit Kay’s birth family, where the women and girls made wonderful eastern European ethnic food around a large kitchen table and the men and boys watched football/baseball games and the men drank highballs. Kay loved these reunions, and the entire family enjoyed these boisterous and cheerful visits with what was by then a very large three-generation family. In the early 1970’s, Bob was attached to the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany. During those years the family traveled throughout Europe, much to the delight of Kay, who particularly enjoyed Paris. Bonn had a very active social scene and Kay enjoyed hosting many elegant gatherings at their apartment, attending formal Embassy events (for which she made her own beautiful formal gowns), and discovering Germany’s festivals and traditions such as Oktoberfest and Three King’s Day, traditions of which were incorporated into her holiday celebrations.

After the family returned to the States, and when the kids were teenagers, Kay continued to raise the kids while pursuing her dream of a higher education. In those challenging years, Kay graciously tolerated the girls bringing home an unauthorized Husky puppy that subsequently destroyed parts of the house, and taught Teresa to sew and supported Nancy’s talent for tennis and Bob’s for football amid completing college prep work at Northern Virginia Community College. Subsequently Kay attended George Mason University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting. She went on to become a certified public accountant, ultimately working as an internal auditor for Citibank. She loved the financial world so much that her leisure time was spent in investing in securities and other financial instruments, all the while buying, renovating, selling, and renting properties in the McLean area. She was a woman ahead of her time, following the example set by her own trailblazing mother. Kay’s favorite stories of her own mother (also named Mary) were that of teaching herself to drive when no one else would, as well as her mom attending men’s softball games when it was simply “not done”. Kay adopted these independent, determined and mold-breaking traits.

As the children became adults Kay was proud of their professional accomplishments. She was delighted when each of her seven grandchildren came along, one of her biggest joys was spending time with them. Over the years, she attended countless sporting events, ballet and piano recitals, performances, plays and scholastic competitions, even taking some grandchildren to Yosemite. When taking any of her grandkids for outings, she made sure they had orange juice, jackets and sunscreen! She was a devoted and proud grandmother, even coming to Louisiana to help when Nancy’s three children were born. She enjoyed talking with Nancy’s husband Ron about her Pennsylvania upbring since Ron’s mother was from a rural town neighboring Derry.

In their later years Kay and Bob loved to travel, visiting Alaska, Panama, and Greece to name a few destinations. These trips were wonderfully documented by Bob, an amateur photographer. After she no longer traveled abroad, she particularly treasured the gifted trinkets from Teresa’s travels abroad.

Kay had many hobbies in addition to investing. She was a life-long fitness enthusiast and worked out daily, eventually turning her basement into a well-equipped gym. For a time, she enjoyed horseback riding, a pursuit she picked up from a physical education class she took in college. Kay was a “gadget girl” - an early adopter of new technology such as personal computers, cell phones, GPS navigation systems, and heart rate monitors. She had refined taste in home decorating and landscaping, and was particularly fond of her beloved Magnolia trees, planted as saplings over 50 years ago. Her favorite room in the house was a sunroom looking out over a semi-wooded area. It was there that she spent much of her time, enjoying the peacefulness of nature. Her life-long appreciation of nature was brought full circle when she and Bob bought a cabin in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Additionally, she enjoyed the performing arts, especially those hosted at the Kennedy Center. Kay also had a sense of community responsibility, volunteering for Meals on Wheels, as well as donating generously to various charities and political organizations.

Kay is survived by her daughter Teresa Leidenheimer and her two children, Cassie and Tanya Traeger; her daughter Nancy Leidenheimer and husband Ron Maloney and their three sons Connor, Brennan, and Andrew Maloney; her son Robert Jr. and wife Andrea Soccio and their children Jonathan Leidenheimer, Rebecca Rose, and Alexandra and Spencer Soccio-Mallon. The family asks that any donations be made to the Dementia Society Inc., https://www.dementiasociety.org/