Myrtle S. Bushee

1926-2021

CANFIELD - Myrtle Ester Sutton Bushee 94, passed on Thursday March 18, 2021, the day after St. Patrick’s Day, at Windsor House at Canfield.

Myrtle was born Sep. 2, 1926 to Harvey Sutton and Janie Britt Sutton in Wayne County, Mount Olive, N.C.

She graduated from Mount Olive High School in May 1944. While in high school, she took typing and shorthand and took and passed the federal government typing test. She was subsequently offered a secretarial position at the newly constructed wartime Pentagon. Upon arrival by train in wartime Washington, D.C., she took a secretarial position for a high ranking Army officer. She also attended and graduated from The Washington School for Secretaries.

Prior to her departure from her hometown in Mount Olive, N.C., she was challenged by her high school classmates that she would never get on the train because she was so painfully shy. She took that challenge and took her southern charm, tenacity and grits as she boarded the train and headed to Washington, D.C.

Upon arrival in Washington, she took up residence in a government sponsored boarding house with young women from all over the country. Her future husband returned from the war to take a government job while attending night college on the GI Bill. Myrtle and Leon met in postwar Washington, D.C. and courted and were married Oct. 2, 1948 at St. Thomas Church in Washington, D.C.

They made their home in suburban Virginia. They welcomed and raised four children.

While Leon held a full time government job, he started a private accounting practice in which Myrtle assisted during the busy tax season. It was at this home that Myrtles southern upbringing burst forth. Everyone was welcome to share in the southern hospitality and delicious baked goodies and sweat tea were always on hand. The baked goodies were kept in the dishwasher, which was never used in a southern home where all the dishes were washed by hand while visiting.

Myrtle was also the neighborhood organizer and ran the annual Fourth of July neighborhood picnic. The neighborhood war cry was "Myrtle is putting out her southern fried chicken." The neighbors all stood in line for her fried chicken. Myrtle was also the source of all neighborhood happenings. She was the embodiment of the southern code. The south: the place where tea is sweet and accents are sweeter, pecan pie is a staple, "Y'all" is the only proper noun, chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy, everything is darlin' and someone's heart is always being blessed.

Myrtle found time in her busy schedule as mother, homemaker and neighborhood organizer to help her husband, Leon, in his volunteer work to found and build the Church of the Good Shepherd in Burke, Va. The Bushee family established their tradition of family vacations. Perhaps Myrtle's greatest joy was welcoming and being actively involved in the lives of her nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Myrtle was proceeded in passing by her loving husband, Leon; and one of her two siblings.

She is survived by one sister, Evelyn; by her son, Gary Bushee; daughter, Diane and her husband, Philip Schmitz; daughter, Susan McCawley; and daughter, Tana Franco.

A private family service and internment will take place at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Va.

(special notice)