Mary Burke Sherwood

Mary B. Sherwood (99), a retired-writer editor for the U.S. Information Agency died May 3 at her home at Goodwin House, Alexandria. For several years she wrote a column for the Agency, “The Week in the United States” about domestic matters ranging from civil rights to politics, which was widely published in overseas newspapers. She covered news assignments at the White House and State Department, as well as Republican and Democratic national party conventions. As a member of the press, she accompanied presidential campaign tours of Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and George McGovern, and traveled with Pat Nixon to Peru and Africa. In her retirement her hobby was genealogy and she wrote a book about one of her ancestors, “Pilgrim: A Biography of William Brewster,” which is still in print. She also wrote a booklet about her Irish immigrant grandparents, “Nicholas Burke and Margaret Shannon: Their Descendants and a Few Ancestors.” She was born in Red Oak, Iowa, November 23, 1917, and graduated in journalism from the University of Iowa. She spent most of her life as a resident of Falls Church. Her husband of 70 years, Robert B. Sherwood, died in 2010. She is survived by a daughter, Elizabeth Sherwood of Annapolis, MD., and Venice, FL, a son, Nicholas A. Sherwood of Reston, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She was a member of the Graham Road Methodist Church, Falls Church; Pi Beta Phi social sorority, the Society of Mayflower Descendants, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and the National Press Club.