Mary Ann Armistead Harper
2006 Mary Ann Harper, 77, a retired radiation therapist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, died Aug. 21 of renal failure at the hospice unit of the Washington Home. She was a longtime resident of Silver Spring. Mrs. Harper was born in the District and graduated from Eastern High School in 1947. In 1951-52, she participated in an Episcopal church mission in Nenana, Alaska. When she returned, she worked for Harry Diamond Laboratories before becoming a homemaker from the late 1950s until the mid-1970s.
She became a radiation dosimetrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the mid-1970s, where she worked until her retirement in 1994. She also worked at Washington Hospital Center. In retirement, she received an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland in 1993 and also took up watercolor painting. She enjoyed reading murder mysteries and science books, solving crossword puzzles and acrostics and photographing wildflowers. Mrs. Harper's husband, James R. Harper, died in 1987. Survivors include five children, James R. Harper Jr. of Avondale, Pa., Jeanne M. Harper of Clio, Calif., Paul C. Harper of South Riding, Faye L. Spence of Boise, Idaho, and Robert Harper of Kensington; two sisters, Carolyn Timmins of Aspen Hill and Analee Brookes of Potomac; a brother, William Armistead of Bristow; and eight grandchildren.