Wilhelmina "Willy" A. Klaassen

Wilhelmina (Willy) Bulten Klaassen was born June 3, 1928, in the Netherlands, in Aalten, a small town near the German border. Willy was an avid reader and that helped her get through 5 trying years of Nazi occupation during the war when she was 11-16 years old. The kitchen of her family home was bombed during the war forcing the Bulten family to move. She helped her mom in the family flower shop while her father ran a successful landscape nursery. After the war, Willy went to University and studied education in Rotterdam. During this time she started a long courtship with the handsome Peter Klaassen. Peter was drafted into the Dutch army after WWII and served in Indonesia for 2 years. Finally marrying in 1954 they honeymooned in Europe by motorcycle. On one occasion Peter stopped suddenly and Willy flew over the handlebars. She got up and back on the bike like nothing happened because “that’s just what you do.” It happened again a few days later.

Housing and the job market in the Netherlands during the post war years was challenging for the ambitious couple who wanted to make their mark on the world. So, like many before them, they looked abroad for lands of opportunity and considered emigrating to Australia, Canada or the United States. An opportunity to move to the USA arose in 1955 and the adventurous couple boarded a boat in Rotterdam bound for New York followed by a train across America. They settled just north of Seattle, Washington, in the small town of Mt. Vernon. In the years that followed they became US Citizens and 4 children were born to this new American family, Paul, Annely, Janine and John.

In 1971 their Dutch sprit for adventure and exploration motivated the Klaassen family of 6 as they drove across America in a U-Haul truck to Fairfax, Virginia. Willy became the director of Commonwealth Christian school. A few years later, and now in her 50’s, she founded The Appletree Private School which provided care and education for toddlers and up through the Third Grade. Parents flocked to this new school with the knowledgeable, energetic, peppy director with a charming Dutch accent. It was so successful, she opened a second location in Northern Virginia just a few years later. After two decades she retired from the Appletree Schools to spend more time reading, traveling with Peter, taking in the beauty of the Chesapeake Bay and visiting family.

Willy always looked at the bright side of things. She didn’t judge, she loved. She was a woman of strong Christian faith that motivated her to find beauty and truth and things worthy of praise in her surroundings. Her grace and warm welcome to all were her hallmarks. Willy created cozy (or as the Dutch would say “gezellig”) environments and experiences wherever she went. This wonderful strong woman will be sorely missed but her legacy lives on in her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and in the thousands of children she taught.

A private burial will be held Tuesday, October 6, 2020, at Flint Hill Cemetery at 2:00 p.m. Arrangements have been provided by Money & King in Vienna and friends & family are invited to share a memory or add to the tribute wall in the electronic guestbook at www.moneyandking.com

A celebration of Wilhelmina’s amazing life will be held in the Spring /Summer of 2021.