Elizabeth Stuart Amery

(nee Brown)

November 11. 1925 — August 27, 2016

After suffering with Alzheimer's disease for far too many years, she finally went to her well-deserved reward. Her loving family tried to be with her for the end, but she said, telepathically, of course, "No Way, Jose! !" and waited until they all went home so she could depart in peace, without any fanfare or fuss. In life she was always putting others first, so her loved ones were not surprised that she carried that consideration through to her passing.

She leaves her beloved husband of 71 years, Hon. Robert S. Amery, son James (wife Mardie), grandson Robert, and son William (partner Michael.) Her life was spent faithfully supporting her husband's military and civil service careers and caring for her family. She had many fond memories of the great diversity of places they were stationed, including Iceland, Okinawa, Maine, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, Texas, England, and Taiwan. She often commented that they had visited every continent in the world, except for Antarctica.

Throughout the years, she diligently supported her sons' school and sporting activities, from little league baseball games to karate to ice-skating competitions. At the age of 55 she bravely embarked upon ice-skating lessons herself, along with her daughter-in-law. (They advanced to the Delta level of lessons before a fall sidelined her potential career with the Ice Follies.)

She reveled in the annual family trips they all enjoyed for 40 years. Hawaii was one of her favorite spots, as was St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Antigua, the Caymans, and many of the other Caribbean islands, as well. When visiting Mexico, Acapulco was an unforgettable adventure, as was Cancun.

She and her husband took many trips with Elderhostel, and enjoyed visiting Egypt, Turkey, and India, and many European countries, too. They loved their 2-week cruise to Alaska, and returned with stories about seeing the glaciers and some amazing wildlife.

She loved shopping and lunching with her "only daughter," and consistently beat her at the card game "Flinch." She also played bridge (and other games) with zest, and a competence and keen competitiveness rarely seen outside the pro circuits.

She was very skilled at sewing, knitting, and crocheting, and created some delightful and unique crocheted items, most of which she donated to her favorite charities so they could sell them and make money to help those in need.

Over the last 40 years she was steadfastly devoted to volunteering for Family Services at Bolling AFB, and also for Haven of Northern Virginia. She donated much of her time and talent to supporting these worthy causes.

Until a few years ago her favorite activity was swimming. She always loved being in the water, be it pond, lake, pool, or ocean, and she was as comfortable in the water as any mermaid! She was an excellent swimmer, and she taught her grandson Rob to enjoy swimming, too, introducing him to both pool and ocean in St. Thomas before he was a year old. She often distinguished the different trips by the various water activities done there. She was the first one to slide off a 25 ft. high sliding board mounted on a snorkel/dive boat in Hawaii!! The first mate said he had seen a few older men volunteer to go down the slide first, but never had he seen an "elderly, grandmother-type" leap to her feet and rush to be the first one down. (She LOVED that, and repeated it as many times as her grandson did.) She was 71 or maybe 72 at the time...

She gave us so many joyous moments, how could we not be happy for her that she is now in heaven, her suffering ceased, her mind as sharp as it ever has been, and her body as young and agile as it was when she frolicked at the beach in Duxbury, Massachusetts as a child?

She was quite a character, and all who knew her will miss her great enthusiasm for life and its plethora of opportunities for fun and adventure.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America 322 Eighth Ave, 7th floor New York, N.Y. 10001