Obituary of Althea Erlene Whitehouse

One of the Few Althea Erlene Yvonne Herbert was born on August 1, 1931 in Darlington, South Carolina, to Louis and Mozelle Herbert. She had one sibling, a younger brother, who was named Louis after their father. After her father died from a brain tumor when she was a young child, she lived in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, later attending school in New York. Althea's ambitious nature likely came from her mother, a concert pianist. She was multilingual and loved to travel. She entered the US Air Force at the age of 19, where she was one of several African-American women in her division. Later, she worked as a civilian employee in the finance office at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In the 1960s, she trained foreign military students at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, and she was a property book officer at Fort Lee, Virginia. Althea wanted a change from her financial career and wanted to explore aviation, so she joined the Federal Aviation Administration in 1972 in flight data systems at the Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center in Leesburg, Virginia. There was some resistance among her primarily male colleagues. "A lot of guys didn't want us [there] because we were women. This was the old guard." But she was not the type of person to let things bother her. The Air Force had prepared her to work in a male-dominated environment. Althea was eventually promoted to management in flight data systems and, after retirement from the FAA in 1989, used her technical expertise working for a software company in Northern Virginia. She also volunteered as a mentor for youths interested in aviation. Althea loved her church and served as a Lay Minister.. She was quite active for many years in the church before falling ill. Althea is survived by her three children, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Althea's memorial will be held Saturday Dec. 5th at St. Matthews Episcopal Church at 1:00 PM. Repast to follow memorial St. Matthews Episcopal Church 201 E. Frederick Dr. Sterling, VA 20164 Althea's final resting place will be the Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please donate in Althea's name to the following organizations: St. Matthews Episcopal Church - http://www.stmtts.org/give ASPCA - www.aspca.org/donate