Mary June LaRose

June 12, 1930 ~ January 16, 2025
Born in:
Oakton, Virginia
Resided in:
Fairfax, Virginia
Mary LaRose died peacefully in her sleep from old age at 94 on January 16, 2025. Born during the Great Depression and raised on a family farm in Oakton, VA, she was the youngest of nine children and learned early on the value of hard work and the powerful love of family. She lived a life filled with both profound joy and many hardships. She married Robert, a career soldier, at 20 and had the first of 4 children at 22 and the last at 35 after suffering 5 miscarriages. Mary loved her family deeply and always put them first. She left her nursing career to follow her husband to numerous military deployments and raised their children on a meager salary, always ensuring they were cared for over her own needs. She endured the remote icy landscape of Greenland for 2 years and waited anxiously at home while her husband served 2 combat tours in South Vietnam. Tragically, Mary was widowed at 43 when Robert died after a battle with cancer. She never remarried, choosing instead to dedicate herself to caring for her elderly mother and raising her youngest child while working nights as a janitor cleaning an entire office building by herself in Falls Church and working as a CNA at White Hall and Fairfax Nursing Center. Though she was incredibly strong most of her life, she was eventually debilitated by serious health issues including rheumatoid arthritis and severe osteoarthritis in both knees, as well as suffering the deaths of her youngest and oldest daughters, her parents, and all her siblings. Mary persevered through the pain and never got depressed or lost her love of life and desire to go on, setting an example of courage and resilience for her family. She was cherished as the matriarch of the family and will live on in her descendants and in all the wonderfully sweet memories and endless love and admiration we had for her.
She is survived by her son Richard LaRose and his partner Yiota Souras, daughter Susan Blevins and her partner Mel Riddle, granddaughter Amanda Crowe and her husband Jeff, grandson Robert Blevins, granddaughter Karen Foster and her husband Brian, grandson Kevin DeNicola and his wife Megan, great granddaughters Sara Gilbert and her husband Charlie, and Laci Crowe, great grandsons Ryan Crowe, Derek Foster, Jakob Foster, Evan Foster, Jackson DeNicola, Samuel DeNicola, Giuseppe DeNicola, Desmond DeNicola, and Artemis DeNicola, great granddaughter Penelope DeNicola, and great great grandsons Ezra Gilbert, Levi Crowe, and Odin Crowe.
Bob Gallagher
Funeral Director
-Richard
– Derek