Elmo L. Stanley died on Saturday, September 13, 2008 at Greenspring Village in Springfield, VA. from complications of lung cancer.
Mr. Stanley was a 25 year resident of the City of Falls church and an active parent in the City’s public schools. He was vice president of the George Mason Jr-Sr High School PTA during the mid-1960’s.
His daughters, Harriett and Sarah Stanley, attended Mt. Daniel and Madison Elementary Schools, as well as George Mason.
Stanley was also vice president and General Superintendent of Stokely-Simpson Construction Company in Merrifield. He also owned a farm in what is now Fairfax Station.
Elmo Stanley was born November 26, 1922 in Ferrum Virginia. He was a 7th generation Virginian and the 14th of 15 children born to William Lee and Cora (Young) Stanley. Nine of those children survived to adulthood.
Stanley graduated from Rocky Mount High School in 1942. Following graduation, he worked as a dresser drawer cutter for Bald Knob Furniture Company in Rocky Mount, making 40 cents per hour. However, war fever was gripping the nation and he soon left southern Virginia. His destination was Baltimore, MD, where the war effort had created jobs.
In Baltimore, he lived in Anna Greenwood’s boarding house while he worked the 3-11 p.m. second shift for Glenn L. Martin Company. The Martin Company made B-26 bombers and Stanley’s job was cutting landing gear parts. Today, the company is known as Lockheed-Martin.
During the day, he attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute to learn how to read blueprints and run power tools.
Despite the fact that he couldn’t swim, Stanley joined the Navy in 1943. Dispatched from Baltimore, he served as an Electrician’s Mate aboard the U.S.S. Eisner, a Destroyer Escort. While Stanley was aboard, the Eisner crossed the Atlantic on convoy duty 12 times.
When hostilities ended in Europe, the Eisner was assigned to the Pacific Theater. Stanley found himself in Okinawa when the war ended.
Elmo Stanley returned to Rocky Mount after the war, but found that there was little to do for work, especially for young men who had seen so much of the world in a short time.
After moving to Northern Virginia, he began working as a laborer for the Washington Gas Light Company.
On Veteran’s Day 1948, he married Mariana Trice, a Marine Corps veteran from Arlington, Virginia. They had two daughters, Harriett (1950), who is a Massachusetts legislator, and Sarah Jean (1953), who owns her own company in Portland, Oregon.
In the early 1950’s, Stanley joined the Stokely-Simpson Construction Company, where he worked for the rest of his career. Stanley began as a welder and moved up through the ranks to machine operator, foreman, general superintendent and vice president. He retired shortly after his 60th birthday in 1982.
During that time, he was a member of the Northern Virginia Builder’s Association and the Northern Virginia Tennessee Walking Horse Association.
Stanley’s first marriage ended in divorce in 1969. In 1970, he married Sophia (Abramowich) Cordani of Fairfax, VA. Cordani’s daughter, Fran Rudd, is a realtor with the ERA/Elite Group in Fairfax County.
Stanley and his second wife moved to Whitestone, VA during the 1980’s and then to Naples, Florida. In 2003, due to health problems, they returned to Virginia to live in Springfield’s Green Spring Village.
Stanley was also member of the Masonic Lodge for nearly 60 years.
His family includes his wife of 38 years, Sophie; two daughters, Harriett L. of West Newbury, MA and Sarah J. of Portland, OR and a sister, Olive Stanley of Manassas, VA.
Also left are a step-daughter, Fran Rudd and her husband, Dale of Fairfax Station, VA; a step-grandson, Michael Rudd, of Centreville, VA, his wife Kathleen and children Andrew and Natalie.
He also leaves a niece, Julie Cochran, of Manassas and two nephews, Larry Patterson of Fieldale and Dale Sloan of McLean.
Mr. Stanley was cremated and his ashes distributed by his family. Arrangements were by Demaine Funeral Home in North Springfield.
