Agnes S. Walsh

Agnes Sharkey Walsh died peacefully at Fairfax Nursing Center on January 20, 2021. Born on October 29, 1922, she was the sixth child of Margaret and James Sharkey. She graduated from West Catholic Girls High School where she played in the orchestra and band. Agnes took classes at the University of Pennsylvania and Villanova University while working at Land Title Bank. In 1947 she sailed to Germany to work in the US Navy Intelligence Office in Berlin. After the Russian blockade, she moved to Heidelberg as secretary to an Army general, There she married Lt. Thomas W. Walsh USN in 1951. After a year stateside, she accompanied her husband on a two-year assignment at the American Embassy in Paris. After various land and sea tours ending in Naples in 1973, Capt. Walsh retired. They spent 17 years in Rome, where Capt. Walsh represented the Italian subsidiary of a U.S. company. Active in several charitable organizations, they were privileged in July 1989 to attend a private Mass in the Papal Chapel and were received in a private reception by Pope John Paul II. They then returned to their home in Fairfax, Virginia, and were invested as a knight and dame of the Order of Malta. They participated for years in the Order’s annual pilgrimage to the Shrine at Lourdes, France. After Capt. Walsh died in 1998, Agnes continued to be active in the Order and St. Ambrose Parish. She is survived by her son Anthony Reade Walsh of Alexander City, Alabama, and her grandson Andrew Reade Walsh of Pensacola. Florida. Two sons died in infancy. Burial will be at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Ambrose Catholic Church, Annandale, VA, at 11 am on February 6th.IIn lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the FitzGerald-Callaghan Lourdes Endowment Fund, Order of Malta, 1730 M ST, NW, Washington, DC, 20036, to support sick people whom the Order of Malta takes on the Lourdes Pilgrimage each May.