Rosemary Carole Anderson

The youngest of six children, she was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa to Roy and Anthonette Suiter, and grew up on an acreage in Omaha, Nebraska. The family grew much of its own food and sold eggs, grapes, and other produce to make ends meet. Her WWI combat-wounded father had opened a print shop in downtown Omaha in the midst of the depression, producing catalogs and brochures for local companies. His craftsmanship enabled him to eventually earn the business of those in the area needing high-end printing. The whole family pitched in on the work, from cutting paper to bookkeeping, with the little ones often falling asleep at night on stacks of paper to the rhythm of the heavy printing presses.

Her father’s self-taught love of the classics and her mother’s ability as a professional organist led to an appreciation of the arts and music in the family. While majoring in mathematics at Creighton University in Omaha, Rosemary had leading roles in several of the university’s musical productions.

After college, she worked as a civilian computer programmer at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, which led to meeting her husband, then-Captain Robert Anderson, an Air Force pilot originally from Chicago. The couple married in 1960, just before he was transferred to Florida. After Florida, they would live in Maryland, California (where their son Robert was born), Thailand, and eventually the Philippines (where their son Roderick was born) during the Vietnam War.

While stationed in the Philippines, her husband Robert (by then a major) would fly C-130s full of supplies into Vietnam, stay there for two weeks flying in-country missions, and then evacuate wounded soldiers back to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. During one of these in-country missions, his plane went down in the mountains during a monsoon, with no survivors.

Upon the death of her husband, Rosemary moved back to Nebraska with her two sons. Though devastated, she was strong in her Catholic faith, and began raising her sons on her own. Her mother Anthonette, by then a widow, came to live with them. As creative as she was resilient, Rosemary started and ran a small telecommunication business, at times worked for several local companies, taught classes on improving one’s speaking voice, and found ways to move her small family including her mother to Spain, Costa Rica, and San Diego for extended periods of time.

Rosemary was known for starting a successful monthly lecture series in Omaha called Thursday Night Forum, which ran for 19 years. She designed it to bring young Catholics from the Omaha area together to get to know each other, while becoming well-formed in timely and thought-provoking religious topics. She selected the topics and worked to find just the right speaker for each, sometimes bringing them in from other cities. A happy moment for Rosemary was when her son Roderick was visiting her in Omaha for a few days, attended one of the lectures, and met his future wife Marta there.

As her mother aged, Rosemary took care of her at home, including the last ten years of her life when she could no longer walk. They were very close, and she considered it an honor to take care of her and make her life as pleasant as it could be.

She had a lifelong love of entertaining, enjoyed tennis in her younger years, and always loved planting and taking care of gardens with beautiful flowers. She put a lot of energy into pro-life activities, as well as a tremendous amount of prayer.

Rosemary moved from her active life in Omaha 5 years ago to be near her sons’ families in Virginia. She lived with her son Robert and his wife Kathleen and their two children in McLean, and quickly immersed herself in her new area. She was a regular at the 6:30am daily Mass at St. John the Beloved, post-Mass Tai Chi workouts, and coffee at StarNut. She loved her new circle of friends of all ages, and with them she started both a ZOOM-based investment group and a weekly craft club. She maintained a very active schedule balancing her two Virginia families, her friends, and her spiritual life. She loved buying rosaries, and she used them to pray for family, friends, friends of family members, and family members of friends. She also loved nocturnal Eucharistic Adoration.

She loved seeing her granddaughters in plays and performances, and watching her grandsons’ soccer and rugby games. She always thought they were the best ones on the stage or on the field. Her optimism and positivity were infectious, and she was able to make people young and old, family and not family, feel loved, special, and unique.

Rosemary was predeceased by her husband, Major Robert Anderson, her sister Bobra Harris of Westport, Connecticut and her three brothers Roy Suiter, Bill Suiter, and Jim Suiter. She is survived by her beloved sister Jeri Rizzuto of Omaha, her two sons, Robert and Roderick, both of Virginia, and eleven grandchildren.

Her funeral Mass will take place at noon on Friday December 17, 2021 at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia. There will also be a memorial Mass in Omaha, Nebraska at St. Cecilia Cathedral at 11:15am on Monday December 20, with burial to follow at Calvary Cemetery in Omaha, where she will be laid to rest next to her husband.

In lieu of flowers please consider donating to one of Rosemary's favorite charities: The Thomas More Society https://thomasmoresociety.org or the Poor Clares Cloistered Nuns of Alexandria, VA https://poorclaresofalexandria.org