Nancy Anna Orr

Nancy Anna Y. Orr of Warrenton, Virginia, former librarian and an active volunteer in community and church affairs, died at Poet’s Walk Warrenton, Virginia on February 12, 2023. Born in Columbus, Ohio on November 4, 1927, she was the daughter of the late Arthur B. and Miriam J. Young. She was greatly admired and loved by family and friends for being an artistic and scholarly woman who was always pleasant and friendly. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Ohio State University and went on to receive her MLS degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1951. Serving as a public librarian in Upper Arlington, Ohio, Arlington, Virginia, and Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties in Maryland, her career culminated in the position of Coordinator of Children’s Services for the Montgomery County Department of Public Libraries. Twice elected by the American Library Association to serve on the Newbery-Caldecott Committee, Mrs. Orr also worked with Virginia Haviland of the Library of Congress to produce an annual list of the best children’s books. Her background in art led to her participation in a national seminar on children’s book illustration held at Cranbrook in Michigan. As a child growing up in Columbus she took art lessons at the Columbus Art Academy and had a minor in Fine Arts at OSU. She maintained an active interest in art throughout her life, studying under various teachers at the Academy Art Museum in Easton where she had served as a trustee, and exhibiting her oil paintings locally. In 1966, she married George Miller Orr, a NASA engineer who grew up in Cambridge, Maryland. They made their home in Silver Spring, Maryland and moved to Oxford in 1978. Mr. Orr died in 1988 and is interred at Old Trinity in Dorchester County. After her retirement and subsequent move to Oxford, Mrs. Orr became active in community and church affairs. She served as President of the League of Women Voters of Talbot County and later on the Board of the League of Women Voters of MD, chairing a study on the election process in Maryland. In that capacity she lobbied for election process reforms and testified at hearings in Annapolis. The present election laws in Maryland reflect some of the reforms which the League of Women Votes promoted. Mrs. Orr was a long-time member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Easton, twice serving as President of its Board and lending her leadership to many other positions in both the local Fellowship and as a board member of the Joseph Priestley District of the Unitarian Universalist Association. She also volunteered at the Regional Cancer Center in Easton and at the Museum and Custom House in Oxford. In addition to her painting, she enjoyed many travels abroad, her favorite being the Provence region in France, outdoor activities, gardening, and hosting family reunions at her Oxford home on Boone Creek. While residing at Londonderry on the Tred Avon in Easton, she served as President of the Board then moved to Warrenton, Virginia in Fauquier County in 2018. She is preceded in death by her husband, George M. Orr and three siblings, Mary Jane Wollerman, Virginia Alford, and John D. Young. She is survived by fourteen nieces and nephews as well as grandnieces and grandnephews. A memorial service will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Easton, MD on March 18, 2023, at 1 p.m. The interment will take place prior to the service, beginning at 10:30 a.m. at Old Trinity Church Cemetery in Church Creek, M,D for any wishing to attend.

Nancy Anna Orr

November 4, 1927 - February 12, 2023