Obituary:  Polly (Rittenhouse) Graham
Source:  The Daily Progress, January 23, 2003
Contributor:  Dennis Truslow <aquaair@erols.com>
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  Polly Rittenhouse Graham (95) of Fort Belvoir, died Thursday, Jan. 9, 2003, at 
the home of her daughter, Katherine Turner, in Alexandria. 
  Born Dec. 28, 1907, at "Glen Thorne," Wintergreen, Nelson County, she was the 
eldest child of the late William Emmett Rittenhouse and Daisy Hughes Rittenhouse. 
  In addition to her parents, she is preceded in death by her husband, Richard M. 
Graham; a son Richard M. Graham; and two siblings. 
  During her early years, Mrs. Graham lived in Charlottesville and attended Saint 
Ann School. 
  She moved with her family to Washington, D.C., in the early 1920s where she 
graduated from Eastern High School. She was a member of Metropolitan Baptist Church 
where she met her husband, Rev. Richard M. graham. They were married in July 1926, 
by the late Rev. Dr. Ball. It was a union that lasted 68 years until Rev. Grahams 
Death in 1994. 
  During her husbands civilian ministry she accompanied him to pastorates in Madison, 
Taylorsville, and Manassas. During World War II, her husband served as a military 
chaplain. Air Force assignments led she and her family to stations throughout the 
south as well as Panama and Okinawa. She was an avid reader, gardener, cook and 
seamstress. She loved all of nature but was especially fond of cats. 
  Upon her retirement, she helped restore an old house in the valley where she had 
been born while her husband served as pastor of Mt. Shiloh Baptist Church of Faber. 
Years later they retired to Charlottesville. Upon her husbands death she moved to 
Alexandria and for the past six years she had at the Fiarfax Retirement Center of 
Fort Belvoir. 
  Polly is survived by her daughters, Katherine G. Turner and Martha G. Turner, 
both of Alexandria; one sibling, Cary Boyd Rittenhouse of Gaithersburg, Md.; 10 
grandchildren; 25 great grandchildren; six great-great-grandchildren; as well as 
her cat, Boots. 


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