Alice Marie Chitwood, (nee Norland), 92 of Burkeville, Virginia, was born to Hjalmar Norland and Jennie Askelin on January 20, 1927, in Minneapolis.
She was the youngest of four children, which also included sisters Elsie (Nurmi), Lucille (Nick), and brother Suante Norlund. She arrived in this world two months after her father succumbed to a farming accident. Alice spent her early childhood in the largely Finnish immigrant town of Finlayson.
She attended Finlayson Elementary School, commuting to school in a horse-drawn, covered wagon. She also attended and sang at the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church. A bright student, she began elementary school a year early and was then allowed to complete the fourth and fifth grade together, as she was the only fourth-grade student in her school. Alice graduated from Central High School in Duluth in 1943 at the age of 16.
Enterprising by nature, she then travelled alone by bus to Takoma Park, Md. and worked in Washington, D.C. for the Government Accounting Office, Caswell Industrial Company, the law firm of Smith, Ristig and Smith, the Coolerator Company in Duluth, and ultimately, the civil service, working for the U.S. Department of the Army.
She met her future husband, Maj. Glenn Chitwood, in Heidelburg, Germany in 1950, and they were married there on March 31, 1951.
Returning to the United States in April 1954, they were founding members of Grace Lutheran Church in Woodbridge, Va. Alice spent 13 years driving a school bus for the Prince William County school system.
She obtained her Associate’s degree in Information Systems from Northern Virginia Community College and was a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She received many citations and commendations for her work in various federal government agencies, retiring from the Pentagon Library, in July 1993.
Alice loved her home state, Minnesota, but was an adventurous traveler and up for any new experience. She appears as an extra in the movie “Deep Impact.” She was athletic, a musician, and a fan of the outdoors, especially when it involved water. She was steadfast in her Lutheran faith and a devoted mother to her children.
She loved nothing better than to be surrounded by friends and family on holidays, cooking enormous meals for anyone she could round up. Her Midwestern niceness and down-to-earth nature were accompanied by a lightning-fast wit. She was a regular contributor to her local newspapers and appeared as a guest contributor to the Washington Post.
Alice is preceded in death by her husband, Maj. Glenn William Chitwood, U.S. Army (Ret). She is survived by her children: Shirley Anne Wiser, Gwendolyn Marie Lovera, Jorg Huckabee-Mayfield, David Glenn Hjalmar Chitwood, Joan Lea McDonough and John Thomas Chitwood, her grandchildren: Jennifer Chitwood Garvey, Christine Chitwood Grashorn; Kiplin Lea McDonough, Shane Thomas McDonough and Matthew Brice McDonough, Desiree Allyn Biggers, Jessie Lynn Wiser, Caitlin M. Wiser, Harlan Glenn Lovera and Victoria M. Lovera, and great-grandchildren: Harrison Lee McDonough and Alice Kiplin McDonough.
The viewing will be held at Puckett Funeral Home at 115 Covington Court in ?Farmville, Va. at on Friday, June 14th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The funeral service will be held at St. John’s Lutheran Church at 1301 Milnwood Road, Farmville, Va on June 15 at 3 p.m. Condolences for the family can be left online.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to support vascular dementia research at Johns Hopkins Neurology.
Interment will be with her husband Glenn at Arlington National Cemetery – date to be advised.
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