Mary Ellen Dempsey

Mary Ellen Dempsey of Lansdowne, VA slipped the bonds of earth during the early morning of April 15, 2022, just one week shy of her 99th birthday. She was born on April 22, 1923, to parents Margaret Yeatts and Toy Adkins in Hurt, Pittsylvania County, VA. Mary Ellen attended the Women's College of the University of North Carolina ("WC"), now the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Upon graduation in 1941, she accepted a position with Johnson & Wimsatt, Inc., a wholesale lumber company in pre-war Washington, DC, where she met her future husband J.P. Dempsey of Martinsville, VA. They were married in November 1942. Mary Ellen soon took a job with the War Relocation Authority, which managed the Japanese internment camps following the attack on Pearl Harbor. She worked alongside several Japanese nisei (born in the U.S of Japanese immigrants), former internees, with whom she became lifelong friends.

Mary Ellen lived her life for her husband and sons. Ever the southern lady, she was proud to be an eighth generation Virginian and her Jefferson family heritage. She loved the arts, interior design and entertaining. In 1961, the family relocated to Newport News, VA, where she studied painting with the late Agnes McMurran Johnson and became an accomplished artist. She was an avid member of the Peninsula Fine Arts Society. While in Newport News, she was a Pink Lady with the Riverside Hospital and established its original gift shop when the hospital moved to its current J. Clyde Morris location from Downtown. When the family returned to Northern Virginia in 1967, she enrolled in the International School of Design in Washington, DC, honing her design and decorating skills. She graduated in 1970.

Mary Ellen is pre-deceased by her husband, J.P. Dempsey, both of her parents, sisters Martha Rice and Margaret Leslie Dean. She is survived by sons Joseph Pritchett Dempsey, III (Deborah) of Marshall, VA and David Jefferson Dempsey of Fairfax, VA; and sister Alice Jefferson Robinson of Roanoke, VA. The family would like to thank her wonderful companion, Jeanne Keenan, and caregivers Dalia Benavidez, Carmella Esteban, Mara Garcia and Carmen Gutierrez for their kind and compassionate care, and the Capital Caring Hospice for its support.

There will be a celebration of Mary Ellen's life on Thursday, May 5, 2022 at 2:30 p.m. at the International Town and Country Club, 13200 Lee-Jackson Hwy, Fairfax, VA. She will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery with her husband at a later date following a service at the Old Post Chapel. In lieu of flowers, consider contributing in her memory to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 200 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard, Richmond, VA 23220 or Capital Caring Health Philanthropy, 3180 Fairview Park Dr, Suite 500, Falls Church, VA 22042

Arrangements are being handled by the Money & King Vienna Funeral Home (www.moneyandking.com).