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Kathleen Tanham

Sep 16, 2022

Kathleen Grant Van Wyck Brown Tanham, formerly of Shepherdstown, WV; Washington, DC; and Upperville, VA, died at the Heron Point Retirement Community in Chestertown, Maryland, on September 2, 2022.

Born December 29, 1928, in New York City, Kathleen was the eldest daughter of the late Philip Van Wyck and Kathleen Hall Grant Van Wyck. She is survived by her first husband, J. Mayo Brown, and their four children: Mayo Carrington Brown of Basalt, CO; Kathleen Grant Brown Eney of Annapolis, MD; Eliza Sherrod Brown Krabbe of Stamford, CT; and Andrea Ward Brown of Bluemont, VA. She is also survived by many other loving relatives and friends.

In addition to her parents, Kathleen was preceded in death by her second husband, George Kilpatrick Tanham; siblings Philip Van Rensselaer Van Wyck, Peter Van Cortland Van Wyck, and Katrina Van Wyck Wilson; and grandchildren Craig Evans Eney, Jr. (Van Eney) and Grant Mayo Eney.

Kathleen grew up in Wilton, CT, and graduated from Vermont’s Bennington College in 1951, with a degree in Social Science. She also studied for two years at Mills College in Oakland, CA, focusing on political science, humanities and library science. In the early 1950s, Kathleen worked for the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. She returned to the U.S. and began raising a family in Upperville, VA, with husband Mayo Brown, and never stopped learning and putting her knowledge to use. She received her certification in Library Science from the University of Virginia and became school librarian at Powhatan School in Boyce, VA. She then moved into a teaching position at Powhatan, during which time she designed a special two-year geography curriculum. In 1977, Kathleen pursued her interest in publications by attended George Washington University’s Publication Specialist Program to learn all about magazine publishing: basic editorial skills; the job of a magazine editor; and every aspect of magazine management, marketing and production. That fall, she began a career that included work for various Virginia publications, including SPUR magazine, The Fauquier Democrat and The Piedmont Virginian, Women’s Work Magazine, and the Loudoun Times-Mirror. Kathleen accepted a job at the Smithsonian Institution, working as assistant editor/designer of the program for the museum’s 1978 Festival of American Folklife. She eventually became Production Manager of the Smithsonian Institution Press, overseeing the printing of many beautifully illustrated books chronicling the Smithsonian’s collections.

Kathleen traveled the world with her second husband, George Tanham, living in Pakistan and India for several years, before returning to Washington, D.C. After his death, she moved to Shepherdstown, WV, and later to the Heron Point Retirement Community in Chestertown, Maryland.

An avid writer, reader and book collector throughout her life, Kathleen donated over 1,000 books to various educational institutions, such as the Shepherd University library in Shepherdstown and the Washington College library in Chestertown. At the university’s request, she served on the library’s nonfiction book selection committee and lectured on various book topics and her particular favorite, women in third-world countries.

A private burial service is planned.

The family requests that donations in Kathleen’s honor be made to the Hospice of the Panhandle.