Evelyn Maddox Pope, 85, of Middleburg, died on April 17, 2014, at her home.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, June 20, at Trinity Episcopal Church Upperville.
A kind, gracious and passionate woman, she leaves a legacy of perpetual improvement, to oneself and to the world we share.
She was born Feb. 5, 1929, in Washington, D.C., to the late Capt. Charles Hamilton Maddox, USN, and Isabel (Ramage) Maddox.
She was a graduate of Potomac School, Mount Vernon Seminary and Briarcliff College. She made her debut at the Sulgrave Club in 1947. In 1949, she married George Anthony Horkan Jr., son of Maj. Gen. George Anthony Horkan and Mary (Thompson) Horkan, at the Washington National Cathedral.
In Washington, she was a member of the Junior League, a performer in their Children's Theatre and a driver for the American Red Cross. She did some fashion modeling, pursued academic and artistic interests and successfully suggested to family friend President Dwight D. Eisenhower that the city needed an opera house.
In 1958, she moved to Upperville, attending Trinity Episcopal Church and becoming president of its women's guild there. She later moved to Middleburg and married Dr. Robert E. McConnell Jr. She worked briefly for two interior designers before opening her own design business Evelyn McConnell Inc. She was appointed to the Town of Middleburg Planning Commission and was on the vestry of Emmanuel Episcopal Church.
In 1981, she purchased a small house in Washington and resumed her family's involvement with the Washington National Cathedral, where her parents had donated the Prayer Book Window in memory of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Young Ramage. She was on the building committee, was vice president of the National Cathedral Association until the cathedral was completed in 1990 and, as Evelyn Maddox McConnell, served as a member of the National Symphony Orchestra's Board of National Trustees.
She was an environmentalist on both the local and global levels. She attended The Aspen Institute, raised funds for Ted Turner's Better World Society and was a trustee for North America with the United Religions Initiative. With her third husband, Edward Julius Pope Jr., she became a community organizer to successfully block the proposed Walt Disney theme park threat. She continued to work for a better world, supporting the efforts by other organizations to abolish nuclear weapons and work for peace.
She was a member of the Sulgrave Club, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, the Fauquier and Loudoun Garden Club and an Officer of The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.
She leaves four children, Kathryn H. Willis of Livingston, Texas, Elizabeth H. Horkan of Annapolis, Anne H. Horkan of Miami and George A. Horkan III of Upperville. She also leaves six grandchildren, Alison Campbell of Washington D.C., Joshua Ryan of Upperville, James Ryan of Miami, Emily Moody of Boulder, Colo., Anthony Horkan and Brittany Horkan of Upperville.
She will be buried next to her beloved husband, Commander Edward J. Pope, Jr. in Arlington National Cemetery. A memorial service will be announced at a later date.
Memorial contributions may be made to the
Piedmont Environmental Council.