Olive Jean Osbourn Powell died on June 7, 2015 in Alexandria, after a brief illness. Born on March 4, 1938, Ollie grew up in Chesterland, Ohio, the oldest of six sisters. She attended Hiram College and became an elementary school teacher. Ever the adventurer, Ollie became a teacher for the Department of Defense in Okinawa, where she met and married Donald Mudge Powell. There they started a family before moving to Alexandria where Don continued his Air Force service. Ollie loved to travel the world and never met a stranger. She loved working with children and touched hundreds of children’s lives as the director of the Browne Academy Summer Camp and as a preschool teacher many years.
Ollie loved caring for her mother-in-law, parents, children and grandchildren over the years and her pool was a frequent stop over for family, friends and summer campers. When her parents, Bertha and Chuck Osbourn became too infirmed to do so, Ollie became the family scribe and reporter. She also shared her love of the early morning, swimming and the outdoors with her children, grandchildren and family as she frequented the ancestral summer home in the New York Thousand Islands. Her loving daughters and their families will miss Ollie’s joy of life: Deidre Ann and husband Tom Chapman and their seven children from Sacramento, Calif.; Paige Louise and husband Michael Schuppin and their three children of Catlett, V.; and Holly Jean, and husband Patrick Thomas Dunn, owners of the Silver Parrot in Alexandria, and their three children. She is also survived by Ollie’s four sisters and their families: Beth and Jack DeBord, Mary and Chuck Ryall, Robin and Brad Ostroff and Margaret (Peggy) Osbourn and David Cole, along with numerous nieces, nephews and their families, cousins and myriad friends. Ollie was preceded in death by her spouse, Col. Donald Mudge Powell, and his mother, Mary Louise Powell, her parents, Bertha and Charles Osbourn and her sister Sally Osbourn Kratochvil.
A memorial service to celebrate Ollie’s life will be held at the Wesley Methodist Church, 8412 Richmond Ave., Alexandria, VA 22309, on Friday, June 26, 2015 at 10 a.m. Internment will occur at Arlington National Cemetery later. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to United Service Organization (USO) http://www.uso.org/donatelanding.aspx or Friends of the Minna Anthony Common Nature Center, 44927 Cross Island Road, Fineview, NY 13640.