Carol Cummings

She was the center of a large and loving family and was especially known for her brilliant imagination, sweetness of character, patience and care for children. She moved four children nearly a dozen times to posts on the East Coast and in Europe as part of her husband, John’s long military career. She was also an English teacher at Warner Robins Junior High in Georgia, and worked at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, and in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she was a Legis Fellow. She was an artist and a writer, a reviewer for the Christopher Awards, and was published in the Christian Science Sentinel and in the magazine This England.

Born in Champaign, Illinois, on Aug. 11, 1944, she was the eldest daughter of Nancy Humphrey King and Paul King, of Rockville, Md.

She attended Knox College on a scholarship, left school to marry, and eventually earned her bachelor’s degree in English after more than 15 years taking a few classes at a time from locations all over the world through the University of Maryland.

After retirement to Polson, Montana, she was a passionate Republican, active in the Lake County Republican Women’s Club, the Lake County Pachyderm Club and the Red Hat Society. She ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination to represent Lake County in the Montana State House of Representatives, an accomplishment of which her family was very proud.

She is survived by her husband of 53 years, John W. Cummings Jr.; four children, Kate Maloney, of Marietta; Elizabeth MacBride, of Alexandria, Va.; Abigail Sidell, married to Steve Sidell, of Salisbury, Md., and John W. Cummings III, married to Katie Taylor Cummings, of Columbia, S.C.; a brother, Chris King, of Leesburg, Va.; a sister, Laura Lisabeth, married to Jeffrey Lisabeth, of Lloyd Harbor, N.Y., a sister-in-law, Wendy Norton of Fredricksburg, Va.; eight grandchildren, and many beloved nieces, nephews and good friends.

A memorial service will be held at Everly-Wheatley Funeral Home, 1500 W. Braddock Road, Alexandria, Va. 22302 at 2 p.m. Saturday. Burial will be later, at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to your local Meals on Wheels.