Beatrice Bishop Franklin
Nov 2005

Beatrice Bea Bishop Franklin, 85, a longtime Arlington resident who retired from the Department of Defense as a housing
officer, died Nov. 25 of a heart attack at her mountain home in Linden, Va.
Mrs. Franklin worked in various federal civil-service jobs between the 1940s and the 1980s, with a brief interlude in the 1960s as
a real estate agent. She worked at the Census Bureau, the Navy Dispensary, the Internal Revenue Service and the Pentagon.
She retired in 1982 from the Defense Department's Joint Armed Forces Housing Referral Office.
Mrs. Franklin was a born in Leesburg and raised in the District. After graduating from Eastern High School, she moved to
Arlington. She married and raised her five sons. Her husband served in the Navy in World War II, and four sons served in the
military between 1960 and 1970.
In retirement, she traveled within the United States and abroad, being among the first Americans in the 1980s to visit China
when relations between the nations improved.
She was an avid genealogist and was active in the District of Columbia Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. She was
a docent at DAR's national headquarters, receiving a pin for her years of service, and served in various positions for her chapter,
Col. John Washington. The Children of the American Revolution was another focus of her activities. She also volunteered at a
local thrift shop.
Her husband, Charles Franklin, died in 1972.
Survivors include her sons, Charles Franklin of Hampton, Howard Franklin and Donald Franklin of Arlington, James Franklin of
Newmarket and John Franklin of Linden; two sisters, Rosalind Barton of Falls Church and Patricia Middelthon of Arlington; eight
grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.