Ruth Lois Cicero

Ruth Lois (Conn) Cicero died August 24, 2026 at her home in Washington, D.C. after a short illness. She was 93 years old. Mrs. Cicero (who went by Lois) was born January 16, 1933 in Tram, Kentucky to John Martin Conn and Thelma Edna (Layne) Conn. She is survived by her children and their spouses, Michael Cicero and Laura Jehl of Chevy Chase, MD, Nancy and Louis Morsberger of Chevy Chase, MD, and Drs. Mary and Branislav Romanic of Frederick, MD, and by seven grandchildren. Another daughter, Lucille Melinda Cicero, predeceased her in 1980. She will be buried at Quantico National Memorial Cemetery alongside her husband, Dr. Joseph Edward Cicero, who died in 2024.

Lois Conn graduated from Betsy Layne High School in Betsy Layne, KY, in 1951 and enrolled in Pikeville College in Pikeville, KY. After her first year, she moved to Virginia Beach, VA to live with her aunt, Mary (Layne) Myers, and attended the Norfolk branch of William & Mary (now Old Dominion University). Although Lois left home at 19, a piece of her heart always remained in Kentucky and she returned to Floyd County each year of her life to see family and friends. In Virginia Beach she met her future husband, Joseph Cicero of Newark, NJ, who was a Naval Aviator stationed at Oceana Naval Air Station. The two were married in 1957 and lived at various times in South Bend, IN, Annapolis, MD, Columbia, SC and other locations as her husband finished his Navy service and embarked on a career as a mathematics professor, and during which time he and Mrs. Cicero raised four children. The couple moved to Conway, SC in 1979, where Dr. Cicero served as Dean and Head of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Coastal Carolina University. In the 1990s, Mrs. Cicero along with her husband and others, founded Summit Teleservices, Inc., a long-distance communications provider in Myrtle Beach, SC. After retirement in 1999, the couple moved to Washington, DC where they enjoyed the company of their seven grandchildren, all of whom were raised in the greater DC area. Mrs. Cicero was a member of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Washington, DC.

Lois, who was raised Methodist and converted to Catholicism in her 20s, was an engaged advocate in the Christian ecumenical movement and served as a member of the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, where she worked closely with Bishop Ernest Unterkoefler to promote mutual understanding among Christian faiths and other religious communities. In that capacity, she attended special courses at St John’s University and Abbey in Collegeville, MN where she engaged with Fr. Thomas F. Stransky, CSP, and other prominent figures in the ecumenical movement, taking the lessons she learned back to her diocese and applying them in her own spiritual life. She was also active in promoting voter education and served as chairman of the Clayton County (GA) League of Women Voters.

A funeral Mass will be conducted September 12, 2026 at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Washington, DC.