Loretta Ann Bowen

Loretta A. Bowen, age 76, died peacefully, surrounded by her friends, at her home in Alexandria, Virginia, on May 10, 2016, after a months-long struggle with cancer. Born in “Little” Washington, North Carolina, she was the daughter of Howard and Lydia (Jackson) Bowen, the beloved sister of Gene, Glenn, Steve Bowen, and Connie Weatherly, and aunt to seven nephews and nieces.

Loretta came to “Big” Washington in the late 1960s to begin a career in legislation and politics, rising to serve as a staff member of the Select Subcommittee on Labor of the House Education and Labor Committee under the Chairmanship of Congressman Dominic Daniels (D-NJ), during the passage of the groundbreaking Occupational Health and Safety Legislation in 1970. She was also instrumental in working on youth camp safety legislation that Chairman Daniels championed.

In recognition of her abilities and political savvy, Loretta was recruited by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in 1973 to serve as a member of the headquarters politics and CWA-Committee on Political Education (COPE) staff. At the time she was the only female member of the union’s headquarters staff. During her 27 years of service with CWA, Loretta took on successively greater responsibilities with greater impacts as Administrative Assistant to the CWA President (1979), CWA Political Director (1980), and Assistant to the CWA Secretary/ Treasurer as Political & Legislative Director (1995). As political director of CWA, Loretta helped build the union into a national powerhouse in the field of campaigns and elections. One of Loretta's most important contributions as political director of CWA was incentivizing union members to contribute to CWA-COPE by instituting a program of ascending awards to recognize higher levels of political donations by dedicated union activists. Among the innovations that she helped pioneer was membership in the CWA Quorum, a select group of large donors to CWA-COPE who were accorded a special membership card and a private reception in their honor at CWA Conventions. She also played a major role in the creation and implementation of the Maxine Lee Award given at CWA's convention to memorialize the grassroots political activity of a CWA staff member who was an outstanding political activist in the state of Texas.

During these years, Loretta was an important political force in national politics on behalf of CWA and progressive causes, who served on the Democratic National Committee’s Site Selection Committee for the 1996 Democratic National Convention and also chaired the AFL-CIO Senate Campaign Committee. Having worked in the legislative process on Capitol Hill, Loretta was especially attuned to the intersection between politics and public policy. She was a strong supporter of the union's legislative agenda and the advocacy endeavors of CWA's lobbyists on behalf of that agenda in Congress. Loretta employed the political clout of the union to help enable the enactment of public laws that benefited not only the union-represented workers for whom CWA served as a voice on Capitol Hill but which also benefited workers who had no union to serve as a voice before Congress on their behalf. She leaves a legacy that enhanced not only the lives of working families from her own years at CWA but which will also uplift the lives of future generations of America's working families.

Loretta retired from her position with CWA in 2000 and maintained a political consultancy practice until she just decided to enjoy her life and catch up on reading and TV mysteries.

She will be deeply missed by her colleagues and her many friends whose lives she enriched and lit up with her concern and humor.

Visitation will be June 10, 2016, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., at Demaine Funeral Home, 5308 Backlick Road, Springfield, VA 22151. Graveside services will be on June 11, at 11:00 a.m., at: National Memorial Park, King David Memorial Gardens Mausoleum 8, East Cloister, Patio B, 7482 Lee Highway, Falls Church, VA 22042. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society at https://donate.cancer.org/index. Cards of sympathy may be addressed to: Friends of Loretta Bowen, c/o Laura Archer, 6101 Edsall Road, #407, Alexandria, VA 22304.

Arrangements under the direction of Demaine Funeral Home, Springfield, VA.