Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Lucy Catherine Flynn Osmond, 97, who worked in catalogue sales at Sears, Roebuck and Co. and enjoyed dressing antique
dolls, died May 13 at the nursing home at the Rappahannock Westminster-Canterbury retirement community in Irvington, Va.
She was a native Washingtonian, the youngest of eight children. As a youngster, she often accompanied her father on his walk
to Union Station, where he worked. At 12, she went to school part time and took care of her father when he became ill. After he
died, her mother became one of the first female police officers in Washington and worked as a parole officer for D.C. Superior
Court. Mrs. Osmond attended Eastern High School until she left to work at Jelleff's Department Store. In 1928, at age 18, she
married Webster Eldridge Osmond.
During World War II, Mrs. Osmond cared for her children and her elderly in-laws while her husband served in the Navy in the
Pacific. She had to learn to drive and handle rationing stamps for food, clothing and gasoline.
After her husband's return, the family moved to Wheaton. She became a member of St. Andrews Lutheran Church there and
later worked for Sears in Washington.
In her large Irish family, Mrs. Ormond was known for her sense of humor and her love of card games that she played with her
siblings for many years. She often traveled to Chesapeake Beach, Md., where her mother owned a home.
Mrs. Osmond, a skilled and creative sewer, searched for antique China-head dolls that she dressed and sold in antique stores
in Georgetown. The fabrics were often scraps from her daughter's dresses, which she made by hand.
After her husband's death in 1980, Mrs. Osmond moved to Bethesda and later to the retirement community.
Survivors include four children, Sharon MacFarlane of Frankfort, Ill., Barbara Ohanesian of Lancaster, Va., Patricia Hulbert of
Annapolis and Craig Osmond of Wales, Maine; eight grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.