Tribute to Janet Cheryl Regan McNamee Valentine, FP87

(Obituary from the Washington Post, Oct. 3, 2010)

Janet Valentine died Friday August, October, 1, 2010 at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, VA after a quarter-century courageous and uncomplaining struggle with rheumatoid arthritis. Born in 1938 Janet Valentine was the daughter of Edgar Paul Regan, Sr. and Sarah Addie Fine Regan. Her father was a builder and inspector of torpedoes at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, and Mrs. Valentine and the rest of the family lived in torpedo-factory –provided housing at Chinquapin Village for many years.

She graduated from George Washington High School in Alexandria and worked early in her life at the WPIK radio station and the advertising departments at the Washington Star and the Washington Post. Mrs. Valentine was a “young Turk” volunteering for the then-weak Republican Party in Virginia for decades, eventually working in the offices of the White House during the Nixon years and Ford years, those of Congressman Joel T. Broyhill, and the Equal Opportunities Employment Commission.

She was vice president of the Washington Board of Realtors and ran for the Arlington County Board. But Mrs. Valentine was most proud of her matriculation at the eventual graduation from Mount Holyoke College, which she entered as a freshman at age 45, as a Frances Perkins Scholar, and from which she graduated four years later with honors with a BA in psychology.

Mrs. Valentine in her 50s completed coursework toward a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Adelphi University and was very happy in her work as a psychologist for the cities of West Palm Beach, Florida, and Alexandria. Mrs. Valentine was a voracious reader and passionate Redskins fan. She also loved to argue politics and later in life became a great support of liberal cuases.

Surviving are two daughters, Julia McNamee and her husband Tobias Watson, of Trumbull, CT and Kim Mack and her husband of Arlington, VA; four granddaughters, Alexandra and Cadence Neenan, of Trumbull, CT and Maddie and Ella McNamee of Arlington, VA, and two grandsons, Robert Price of Buckhannon, WV, and Regan McNamee, of Arlington, VA; a sister, Carol Mata of Gibsonville, NC and three brothers, Frank Regan, of Alexandria, VA, Larry Regan of Locust, NC, and Gary Regan, of Jamestown, NC. A memorial service was held Tuesday October 5 at 11 a.m. at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Arlington, VA.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Frances Perkins Program at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA.