Jean Voith Bort

Jean Voith Bort—fourth-generation Washingtonian, popular realtor, and diehard reader of The Washington Post—died peacefully on Sunday, May 25, 2025 at age 95. Jean was the eighth of nine children born to Ferdinand and Lillie May Voith, who all lived with Lillie's parents Charley and Emma Beck in the house they built in 1895 at the corner of 8th and Flint (later Longfellow) in Brightwood Park in the outskirts of Washington City. She attended school at Nativity in Brightwood Park and The Academy of the Holy Names in Silver Spring.
In 1948, at the tender age of 18, Jean married Albert James Bort (1926 – 1988) and decamped with him to the wilds of downtown Bethesda, Maryland, which at that time was not nearly as tony as it is these days. (They lived on Cordell Avenue, inside the Woodmont Triangle, which was nicknamed "Mudmont.")
After raising four children and running an in-home daycare for many years before there was a daycare industry, she embarked on a career in real estate, specializing in the post-WWII housing around the Wyngate/Alta Vista/Ayrlawn neighborhoods before the tear-downs began. She was known for her good humor, easy manner, and unshakable ethics.
Though she had never been on an airplane until her 40s, she had an innate sense of adventure and eventually traveled to many states in the US and even went all by herself to visit her son and future daughter-in-law in Moscow and made it home safely. She loved the outdoors, gardening, and flowers, and had a lifelong love affair with the moon. She played piano but needed to be alone to play with abandon; she taught her children, grandchildren, and other children to play. She took a walk every day until the day she couldn't walk anymore.
Jean was one of those bright lights who drew people to her. She had enduring cross-generational appeal, with pre-schoolers gravitating to her on the beach or playground, teenagers breezily chatting with her on wide-ranging topics, and—especially in her later years—people remarking to her children, "I love your mother! She is so [charming!] [wonderful!] [adorable!]"—that last typically after she hit about 85. She was everybody's favorite aunt (don't tell the other kids). But she was salty, too, which added to her appeal; she didn't usually like having her picture taken, and was known to flip off the paparazzi when they wouldn't take no for an answer. She was famous for sending her children and grandchildren out into the world with her all-purpose marching orders, "Don't do anything stupid!"
Jean Voith Bort, engaged citizen of the world, is survived by her children Diane Best (Burton), James (Joan), Christopher (Linda), and Jennifer Yacovissi (James); grandchildren Laura Jean Ball (James), Christina Slone (Brian), Timothy (Brittney), Shannon Fisher (Robert), Andrew (Caroline), and Theresa (Nicholas); and great grandchildren Jaxson, Elcie, Emma, Mason, Paige, and Phoebe.
Visitation will be at St. Jane de Chantal Catholic Church on Old Georgetown Road starting at 10 a.m., Tuesday, June 3, followed immediately by a funeral mass at 11 a.m. and burial at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, MD. In lieu of flowers, wear something flowery; she would love that.