Obituary of Anna Larson Bloomer

Anna Larson Bloomer, the matriarch of the Bloomer family, passed away peacefully, with her children at her side, on Saturday, December 6, 2014 at the Johnson Center Nursing Home in Sterling, Virginia. She was 91. She had been a Washington, DC and Virginia metropolitan area resident for more than 70 years, living primarily in Landover Hills, Maryland and Sterling and Reston, Virginia. She was a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Mrs. Bloomer was born at home on March 11, 1923 to Elvina Henderickson Larson and Albert Olaf Larson among the peaceful rolling hills of the small Scandinavian-American farm community of Northfield Township, Jackson County, Wisconsin. She was one of nine brothers and sisters and grew up on the Larson family farm in Northfield. Mrs. Bloomer was preceded in death by her husband, Edward Gerard Bloomer, originally from Newburgh, New York, who at age 85 died on their 60th wedding anniversary on October 27, 2005. She is also preceded in death by her parents, Elvina and Albert Larson, and four brothers, Alvin, Odell, and John Larson of Osseo, Wisconsin and Earl Larson of Alma Center, Wisconsin, and her grandson, Steven Bloomer, who died in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in June of 2014. Mrs. Bloomer is survived by her five children, Barbara Halter of Frederick, Maryland, Michael (Lynn) of Gainesville, Virginia, Jeffrey (Linda) and Neil (Jean) of Manassas Virginia, and Kathleen (Andy) Thomas of Atlanta, Georgia. She is also survived by four grandchildren, Beth Foster of Baltimore, Maryland, Eric Bloomer of Cary, North Carolina, Michael Thomas of Atlanta, Georgia, and Sarah Thomas of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and four great grandsons, brothers Michael and Gabriel Foster of Baltimore, Maryland and brothers Connor and Liam Bloomer of Cary, North Carolina. Mrs. Bloomer is also survived by one brother and three sisters and numerous other Larson and Henderickson family relatives in Wisconsin. Mrs. Bloomer was a member of the "Greatest Generation", a child survivor of the Great Depression in the 1930's, and a teen-age War Department employee in the early 1940's during World War II. After graduating from Whitehall high school in Whitehall, Wisconsin in 1941, Mrs. Bloomer attended business school in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and then at age 19, she moved to war time Washington, DC in May of 1942 where she was employed as a secretary to the Chief of Army Finance at the War Department's new Pentagon office building in Arlington, Virginia, where she worked until 1946. In October of 1945, Mrs. Bloomer married Edward Gerard Bloomer, a former WW II Army Engineer, at Saint Mathews Cathedral in Washington, DC, and two years later, she began her new full time career as a stay at home mom and homemaker for what would become five children of the "baby boomer" generation. In the mid 1950's, Mrs. Bloomer worked at home in Landover Hills, Maryland as a part time secretary for an insurance agent. In the late 1950's and 1960's, she was an active member of the Saint Mary's Catholic School Parents and Teachers Association in Landover Hills, Maryland. She was a volunteer for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Election Committee in Hyattsville, Maryland in 1960. While living in Sterling, Virginia in the 1980's she worked for a short time as a secretary for the former Defense Communications Agency in Reston, Virginia. Mrs. Bloomer was an avid BINGO player, gardener and landscaper, and loved to walk to keep physically fit. She had an easy peaceful grace about her that everybody loved. She was known for her warm loving smile, her infectious laugh, and her wonderful sense of humor. Throughout her life, Mrs. Bloomer always stayed true to the Greatest Generation values of duty, honor, country, love of God and family, and above all, responsibility for one self that she learned while growing up on the family farm during the Great Depression and serving her Country during World War II. Family will receive guests Sunday, December, 14 from 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. at Adams-Green Funeral Home, 721 Elden St., Herndon, VA, 20170. Funeral Mass, Monday, December 15, 9:45 a.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church 18825 Fuller Heights Rd., Triangle, VA 22172 followed by interment with her husband at Quantico National Cemetery, Quantico, VA at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Mrs. Bloomer's name to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Inc., Department 560, Washington, DC 20042-0560, or the Friends of the National World War II Memorial on the Mall, 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Suite 304, Washington, DC 20003. Information and condolences at www.adamsgreen.com