Anne Sasscer

Anne Green Mackall Sasscer died peacefully with family beside her at the age of 94 on November 16th, 2025 at Solitude Farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. She was born a Virginian on February 10, 1931, the daughter of Charles Green Mackall, Sr. and Rebecca Dulany Beverley of Greenwich and The Plains, whose farms were the cherished places of her childhood. She was educated at The Potomac School and The Madeira School before graduating cum laude from Bryn Mawr College after a year at the Sorbonne in Paris, marking a lifelong appreciation for all things French. As an excellent student with an aptitude for languages, she returned to Washington to work for the National Security Agency in intelligence after being taught Indonesian. Soon thereafter, she met Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer, Jr., the love of her life, whom she married on June 11, 1955 at Grace Episcopal Church in The Plains, Virginia. Mr. Sasscer brought his bride back to his hometown of Upper Marlboro where they would spend almost 65 years together, loving and serving family, friends and their community. Anne Sasscer was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Upper Marlboro for her entire married life, polishing the brass rails and arranging flowers with the altar guild for decades, serving on the Vestry and chairing the preservation committee for the ongoing restoration of the historic church. She was creative, disciplined and intellectually engaged as reflected in her many interests whether renovations, antiques, gardening, writing or cooking. She loved creating beauty that would give joy beyond her own lifetime. Through the years, she renovated Solitude Farm and later the generational family house in the town of Upper Marlboro, planting trees and daffodils wherever she lived. She took great pleasure in reading and writing. The Oxford Book of English Verse, a Parisian or English village mystery and a well-worn book of French poetry were always at her bedside. She and her sister-in-law Mimi Mackall greatly enjoyed co-editing for publication with an historian the diary of Ida Powell Dulany, the great-grandmother of Anne and her beloved brother Charlie Mackall. Anne also wrote her own charming short stories and a longer mystery for her children and grandchildren. Every note and Christmas card was personal and written by hand. Whether with an old southern recipe or Julia Child's, she delighted in nourishing family and friends. Her way of expressing affection or encouragement was hand-delivering a homemade caramel cake, Christmas eggnog or restorative custard to one who was recuperating. Anne Sasscer was more interested in asking people about their lives than in talking about her own and more comfortable in giving compliments than in receiving them. Most of all, she always tried to share the many blessings of a wonderful life. Mrs. Sasscer was predeceased by her husband, Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer, Jr. She was the mother of three devoted daughters Rebecca Mackall Sasscer Henderson, Anne Lansdale Sasscer Newman and Molly Ghiselin Sasscer Kanellos. She is survived by seven grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren, all of whom gave her great joy. They are the children of Rebecca "Becky" and Fraser Cummins Henderson, Sr.: Fraser Cummins Henderson, Jr. (Betsy) and their daughter Phoebe Maynadier Henderson and son Fraser Cummins Henderson, III of Upper Marlboro; Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer Henderson (Cécile) and their sons Louis Ghiselin Saturnin Henderson and Augustin Charles William Henderson and daughter Isabella Rose Beverley Henderson of La Baule, France; and Landon Carter Henderson (Meghan) of Colorado; the children of Anne "Lanny" and John Winslow Newman, Sr.: John Winslow Newman, Jr. of Nashville, Tennessee and Carter Lansdale Newman (Laura) of Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the children of Molly and George John Kanellos: John Hill Carter Kanellos and Anne Hamilton Dulany Kanellos of Upper Marlboro. She is additionally survived by her brother Charles Green Mackall, Jr. and sister-in-law Mary LeJeune Mackall, and by her Mackall, Sanders, and Clagett nephews and and nieces to whom she was devoted. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, Nov. 29 at 11:30 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upper Marlboro.