Charlotte Moonyeen Slaney-Lewis Obituary (1936 - 2022)

Charlotte Moonyeen Slaney-Lewis November 11, 1936-September 23, 2022 Our beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother Charlotte Moonyeen Slaney-Lewis passed away on September 23 at the age of 85. Charlotte was an independent, self-made woman in an era of women's liberation. She was born in Memphis, Texas on November 11, 1936 to Chrystal Arlene and Lesley Harrell Calhoun. A military family, they moved often and were stationed as far away as Otsu, Japan and Fairbanks, Alaska. In Fairbanks she married her first husband Tom Slaney at age 18; together they crossed the country multiple times including California, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia as he played trumpet during the Big Band Jazz era and piloted commercial aircraft. They raised three children--Deborah Christine, Kara Lynn, and James Jay--in Springfield, Virginia. By the 1970s Charlotte had completed business school, becoming a leading mortgage loan underwriter, processor and originator in northern Virginia and raising her children on her own. Charlotte later married banker James R. Lewis in 1983, sharing a home and life with her husband in Springfield and Leesburg, Virginia for 39 years. Charlotte was a loving, happy, and nurturing "Grammie" to her granddaughters Chrystal and Selina, and to her great-grandchildren Emily, Timmy and Luke. She loved gourmet cooking, decoupage, sewing mid-century fashions, and disco dancing in the 1960s and 70s. She loved Yorkie terriers, dinner parties with her Virginia and Florida friends, weekends in Ocean City, summers in Saratoga Springs, New York and Sebastian, Florida, and autumn in Arizona and New Mexico with her family. Her travels took her to China, England, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland. Extra special time was spent in Texas, where she visited extended relatives and the ranch and homesteads of her Calhoun and Howard ancestors. In addition to her treasured family time, Charlotte also volunteered for Meals on Wheels, Dodona Manor, and the Women's Club of Leesburg. Charlotte is survived by her husband James, children Deborah Slaney and husband James Iwerks, Kara Gentile and husband Arnie Gentile, James Slaney, grandchildren Chrystal Slaney, Selina Brooks and husband Timothy Brooks, great-grandchildren Emily Amaya, Timothy Brooks and Luke Brooks, many nieces, nephews, extended family and friends, and her beloved poodle, Prince. We will never forget her home-made Thanksgiving dinners, popovers, biscotti, eggs benedict, kitty cat pancakes, over-the-top Christmas celebrations, and the many ways she showed her love to us all. Donations in her memory may be made to a pet rescue of your choice.