Anne Macrum Elder, 91

Anne Macrum Elder, 91, of Salem, Virginia died on Sunday, June 20, 2010. Anne was born January 24, 1919 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Towson High School in Maryland in 1937 and studied piano at Peabody Institute in Baltimore.

She earned a bachelor of sci­ence in education from Towson State Teachers College in 1943 and taught school in Harford County, Maryland.

Called to serve her country, Anne joined the United States Navy as a WAVE and became an aerologist, serving at Dahlgren Proving Ground in Virginia and the Naval Air Station in Jackson­ville, Florida.

She then became a meteorol­ogist for the Baltimore Weather Bureau and was commissioned a lieutenant junior grade in the United States Naval Reserve. She reached the rank of commander before retirement.

Anne also studied at Florida State University and served at weather stations in Honolulu, Hawaii; Wilmington, North Car­olina; Spartanburg, South Caro­lina; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Oklahoma City, Okla­homa; and Neenah, Wisconsin, where she became the first fe­male meteorologist-in-charge in the northwest central region. In 1973, Anne received a United States Department of Commerce Bronze Medal “in recognition of continued out­standing

meteorological service to the residents of eastern North Carolina.”

She retired as weather ser­vice and radar specialist at the Weather Service Office in Wilm­ington, North Carolina in 1977. She was a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church choir in Wilmington. She enjoyed entertaining many nieces and nephews at Wrightsville Beach. In 2002, Anne moved to the Roanoke Valley to be closer to her sister and brother-in-law, Mary and Tom Orville and their family. She was preceded in death by her parents, George Howard Elder and Anna Macrum Elder; a brother, George Elder; and a sister, Lois Young.

Survivors include her broth­ers, Robert Elder, of Hunting­don, Pennsylvania, and Thomas Elder, of Norfolk, Massachusetts; and her sisters, Susan Malcolm, of Niskayuna, New York, and Mary Orville, of Roanoke, Vir­ginia. Also surviving are eight nieces; seven nephews; 15 great-nieces; 17 greatnephews; three great-greatnieces; and two great­great nephews.

A memorial service is sched­uled for 11 a.m. Friday, June 25, 2010 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 42 East Main Street in Salem, Virginia. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Snyder Nursing Home, 11 North Broad Street, Salem, Virginia 24153.

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