Julia Merrell Tucker Harris
November 27, 1932 ~ March 1, 2016
Julia Merrell Tucker Harris
Early in the morning of March 1, 2016, Julie passed away peacefully of complications of a heart condition that she had had for several years. She was 83 years old.
Julie was born in Philadelphia on November 27, 1932. She was the only child of Marion Clinch Calkins and Charles Marquis Merrell. She was raised in McLean, VA, on Rokeby Farm, an old farmhouse where she developed her lifelong love of animals, especially horses. She grew up horseback riding at school and with her neighbors Jackie and Lee Bouvier. She graduated from The Potomac School in Washington and The Madeira School in Greenway, VA. She took a year off before attending Sarah Lawrence College as her parents thought her, at 15, too young to attend college. She traveled abroad, visiting her uncle, George Merrell, a career diplomat then US ambassador in Ethiopia. Her tales of her travels included shipboard romances, white-tie state dinners and a gift of a white horse from Emperor Haile Selassie.
Julie was the only child of an intellectual and a cowboy who met on an Atlantic cruise. Her parents were a major force during her life and after their deaths the simplicity of their lifestyle, their close friendships (including Marquis Childs, Katherine & Francis Biddle), their liberal politics, love of nature and fondness for reading. Her mother, Marion Calkins of Evansville, WI, was a university professor in Madison, WI, a social worker in New York City, an art historian in Florence, Italy and then worked for Harry Hopkins traveling the country reporting on social-economic conditions and ghostwriting for him. She was a noted poet and author who wrote under the name of Clinch Calkins; she was a frequent contributor to New Yorker and Town & Country. She was the author of several books including Some Folks Won't Work, Spy Overhead, Lady on the Hunt, Calendar of Love, and Strife of Love in a Dream. Julie's father, Mark Merrell of St Louis, a member of the Merrell drug company family, headed the drug division of the New Deal's National Recovery Administration, and later worked on government aid programs domestic and foreign the early 1950s found him in South Vietnam. He had to change careers when he was blacklisted during the Joseph McCarthy era. He then became involved in real estate development in northern Virginia.
In the 1952, Julie married her childhood sweetheart, Howard McKeldin Tucker, a stock broker and financial analyst in Washington and started a family. Their home was a haven for all variety of people and pets, including an Old English sheepdog, Nana, whose abundant litters took over their dining room at regular intervals. In addition to horses, dogs, cats, birds and rabbits, she adopted a baby blue jay, whose antics was the subject of a Washington Post article. She organized all kinds of fun activities for her children and their friends a fundraising carnival in their front pasture, a camp for inner city children during the hot summers, and big dinners on the front porch usually consisting of one of two dishes for which she was famous: chili con carne or curried chicken. Her love of people and her seeing only the bright side of everyone made her beloved of all.
Her first marriage ended in divorce in the late 70s. Dealing with teenagers traumatized by the divorce, Julie, who up to that point had only been an Avon Lady, entered the workforce to help support her family. She found a job in a doctor's office where she met her second husband, Dr. Forest Klaire Harris, Jr. She worked in his medical practice in Foggy Bottom for 15 years until he closed the practice in the early 90s. In retirement, she and Forest enjoyed travel, entertaining family and spending time at their homes in McLean, Pennsylvania, and Lake Temagami in Canada.
Julie spent the last decade preparing her mother's manuscripts and papers, which include letters from her best friend, Katherine Biddle. The Clinch Calkins Papers are now among those of other distinguished twentieth century women authors at the Georgetown University Library's Center for Special Collections.
Julie was a member of the McLean Sewing Bee, McLean Historic Society, the Metropolitan Book Club Society, and the Sibley Bereavement Support for Widowed Persons.
She was preceded in death by her husband Forest, her grandson Stephen Sherman, and her dear friends Hazel Lowery and Polly Greenberg. She is survived by her four children: Deborah, Mark, Alexander & David Tucker; her step children: Nina & Cindy Harris; her grandchildren: Alyson, Annie, Caitlin, Dan, Eddie, Emily, Gabrielle, Steven and Will; and great grandchildren: Gracie and Walt.
Funeral Home:
Money & King Funeral Home
171 W. Maple Ave.
Vienna, VA
US 22180
Service:
Money & King Funeral Home
171 W. Maple Ave.
Vienna, VA
US 22180
Early in the morning of March 1, 2016, Julie passed away peacefully of complications of a heart condition that she had had for several years. She was 83 years old.
Julie was born in Philadelphia on November 27, 1932. She was the only child of Marion Clinch Calkins and Charles Marquis Merrell. She was raised in McLean, VA, on Rokeby Farm, an old farmhouse where she developed her lifelong love of animals, especially horses. She grew up horseback riding at school and with her neighbors Jackie and Lee Bouvier. She graduated from The Potomac School in Washington and The Madeira School in Greenway, VA. She took a year off before attending Sarah Lawrence College as her parents thought her, at 15, too young to attend college. She traveled abroad, visiting her uncle, George Merrell, a career diplomat then US ambassador in Ethiopia. Her tales of her travels included shipboard romances, white-tie state dinners and a gift of a white horse from Emperor Haile Selassie.
Julie was the only child of an intellectual and a cowboy who met on an Atlantic cruise. Her parents were a major force during her life and after their deaths the simplicity of their lifestyle, their close friendships (including Marquis Childs, Katherine & Francis Biddle), their liberal politics, love of nature and fondness for reading. Her mother, Marion Calkins of Evansville, WI, was a university professor in Madison, WI, a social worker in New York City, an art historian in Florence, Italy and then worked for Harry Hopkins traveling the country reporting on social-economic conditions and ghostwriting for him. She was a noted poet and author who wrote under the name of Clinch Calkins; she was a frequent contributor to New Yorker and Town & Country. She was the author of several books including Some Folks Won't Work, Spy Overhead, Lady on the Hunt, Calendar of Love, and Strife of Love in a Dream. Julie's father, Mark Merrell of St Louis, a member of the Merrell drug company family, headed the drug division of the New Deal's National Recovery Administration, and later worked on government aid programs domestic and foreign the early 1950s found him in South Vietnam. He had to change careers when he was blacklisted during the Joseph McCarthy era. He then became involved in real estate development in northern Virginia.
In the 1952, Julie married her childhood sweetheart, Howard McKeldin Tucker, a stock broker and financial analyst in Washington and started a family. Their home was a haven for all variety of people and pets, including an Old English sheepdog, Nana, whose abundant litters took over their dining room at regular intervals. In addition to horses, dogs, cats, birds and rabbits, she adopted a baby blue jay, whose antics was the subject of a Washington Post article. She organized all kinds of fun activities for her children and their friends a fundraising carnival in their front pasture, a camp for inner city children during the hot summers, and big dinners on the front porch usually consisting of one of two dishes for which she was famous: chili con carne or curried chicken. Her love of people and her seeing only the bright side of everyone made her beloved of all.
Her first marriage ended in divorce in the late 70s. Dealing with teenagers traumatized by the divorce, Julie, who up to that point had only been an Avon Lady, entered the workforce to help support her family. She found a job in a doctor's office where she met her second husband, Dr. Forest Klaire Harris, Jr. She worked in his medical practice in Foggy Bottom for 15 years until he closed the practice in the early 90s. In retirement, she and Forest enjoyed travel, entertaining family and spending time at their homes in McLean, Pennsylvania, and Lake Temagami in Canada.
Julie spent the last decade preparing her mother's manuscripts and papers, which include letters from her best friend, Katherine Biddle. The Clinch Calkins Papers are now among those of other distinguished twentieth century women authors at the Georgetown University Library's Center for Special Collections.
Julie was a member of the McLean Sewing Bee, McLean Historic Society, the Metropolitan Book Club Society, and the Sibley Bereavement Support for Widowed Persons.
She was preceded in death by her husband Forest, her grandson Stephen Sherman, and her dear friends Hazel Lowery and Polly Greenberg. She is survived by her four children: Deborah, Mark, Alexander & David Tucker; her step children: Nina & Cindy Harris; her grandchildren: Alyson, Annie, Caitlin, Dan, Eddie, Emily, Gabrielle, Steven and Will; and great grandchildren: Gracie and Walt.
Funeral Home:
Money & King Funeral Home
171 W. Maple Ave.
Vienna, VA
US 22180
Service:
Money & King Funeral Home
171 W. Maple Ave.
Vienna, VA
US 22180
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