Anna Powell Herb

HERB

ANNA POWELL HERB "Ann"

Anna Powell Herb "Ann" died in Haymarket, Virginia, June 26, 2023, aged 90. Born in 1932 to Lithuanian-speaking parents, Ann was raised in New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a town that even to this day numbers little more than a thousand residents. After elementary school at Sacred Heart in New Philly, she attended Pottsville High School, graduating in 1949. Then, aged sixteen, she went to Immaculata College, where she earned degrees in Biology and education. She found her vocation in teaching. After working in schools around the country, Ann spent the last twelve years of her career in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms at Little Run Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia, before retiring in 1994.

In 1954, Ann married Charles Herb, the strapping college football player from Frackville, Pennsylvania, she had met on a blind date. Following his commission in the US Army, she and her husband traveled the world from duty post to duty post until they settled at last in Fairfax. Together they raised seven children.

But these, the facts of Ann's life, do not tell the greater story of her character and legacy:

Unlike some military wives, Ann was never docile or passive. A fiercely independent thinker possessed of a keen intellect and wry wit, she was described even in her age by one great-granddaughter as "smart and bold."

Devoted always to cultivating the life of the mind, Ann was a voracious reader, a student of history and lover of the arts, who knew a little something about everything. An educator both in and out of the classroom, she delighted in sharing her knowledge, often of obscure, out-of-the-way facts, with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and, to their good fortune, any accidental passersby. Until her final hours, she remained intellectually curious and enviably sharp. She loved the play of words and their liquid possibilities: Only on the day that she was called away did she leave a Washington Post crossword unfinished on her desk.

Large-souled and large-minded, always open to new ideas, she nevertheless believed still in the dignity and elegance of old world social forms, and she took pains to teach her children and grandchildren etiquette. A granddaughter remembered that Ann taught her the proper placement of a shrimp fork on the well-dressed dinner table before she knew what a shrimp was.

Predeceased by her parents, Edward Joseph Powell and Helen Daukzsis Powell; husband of 65 years, Col. (Ret.) Charles D. Herb; brother, Edward Joseph Powell; grandchildren Ashley Ruddle and Charlie Herb; and sons-in-law Timothy Ruddle and Frederick Potter, Ann is survived by her sister Helen Powell Myers, brother-in-law Charles Myers, and all seven children: daughters Susan Child, Kimberly Andrews, Anne Ruddle, and Michelle Potter and sons Kevin, Chuck, and Jeffrey. Matriarch of the sprawling Herb family, she also leaves behind 21 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Ann's was a life made exceptional by her character; her service to others; her quiet, unwavering Catholic faith; and the light that all of those left behind carry with them into the world.

Having joined herself to her husband when she was but a girl of 22, Ann will be interred with him in Arlington National Cemetery and lie by his side for as long as forever is.

Services will be held at Nativity Catholic Church in Burke in the fall and reception to follow at Country Club of Fairfax. Interment at a later date Arlington National Cemetery