Melpomeni K. Jeffries

02/28/1933 - 05/24/2024

Melpomeni K. Jeffries passed away on May 24, 2024. Melpomeni was born in Endicott, New York, on February 28, 1933. She graduated from Union-Endicott High School in 1950, and obtained a bachelor's degree in biology from University of Rochester in 1954. She then pursued her studies at University of Pennsylvania where she obtained a master's degree in 1958 and - after a memorable summer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - met her husband Kenneth. Melpomeni and Ken were married on June 18, 1960 at the St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Philadelphia. In the early 1960s, Melpomeni and Ken moved to Houston, Texas where their first two children Stephen and Sarah were born. Following the family's move to Bethesda in 1966, Melpomeni gave birth to their third child, Christopher, and worked as a home instructor for Montgomery County Public Schools before returning to a career in laboratory research. Melpomeni worked as a physiologist at the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse until 1987 where she conducted experimental research, followed by ten years as a scientific reviewer at the Food and Drug Administration. Melpomeni spent many years volunteering with the League of Women Voters, culminating in the positions of Director of Housing for the Montgomery County chapter and finally President of the League of Women Voters of the National Capital Area from 2005-2007. Volunteerism aside, Melpomeni loved opera, plants, relatively short nature walks, Burmese food, mystery novels and almost anything on Masterpiece Theatre. She is survived by her children Stephen (Rachel) Jeffries, Sarah (Steve) Jeffries and Chris Jeffries; and her grandchildren Lucy, Beatrice, Mia, Alex and Nathaniel. Melpomeni is interred in the Holy Trinity Columbarium at Holy Rood Cemetery.