Lea Aspinwall Cadwalader, 79, who married a member of a prominent Philadelphia family, then served as a Navy wife after he changed careers, died last Wednesday at Cathedral Village in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia of complications following a stroke.
She had been a longtime resident of Blue Bell.
Mrs. Cadwalader grew up in Chestnut Hill and attended the Shady Hill and Agnes Irwin Schools before earning a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1944.
Not long after Mrs. Cadwalader graduated from college, she met her future husband, John, who had been an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania for five years before joining the Navy in 1940. He also was a widower with three small sons. The couple were married in May 1946.
After the war, he received a doctorate in English literature at Penn but returned to the Navy instead of the classroom. Instead of living the life of a professor's wife, Mrs. Cadwalader suddenly was a Navy wife.
Her husband was a U.N. observer in Kashmir in 1951, then spent four years with the Naval Support Force in Antarctica.
While he was gone, she ran the family alone, raising her three stepsons and the couple's two children.
In 1963, the couple retired to a 25-acre farm in Blue Bell, where they gathered native trees and plants.
Mrs. Cadwalader was active for many years in the Visiting Nurse Association of Montgomery County, the Weeders' Garden Club, and the Colonial Dames of America.
In 1983, her husband donated his share of a collection of family portraits by Charles Willson Peale and other famous artists to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Those portraits and family furniture formed an exhibit, "The Cadwalader Family: Art and Style in Early Philadelphia," mounted by the museum in 1996 to mark the 300th anniversary of the family's presence in America.
Mrs. Cadwalader is survived by a daughter, Sandra; a son, Gardner; stepsons John, George and David; two grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; and seven step-great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1998.
Services will be today at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh. Burial will be private.
Memorial donations may be made to the John Cadwalader Scholarship Fund, in care of University of Pennsylvania Trustees, Philadelphia.
She had been a longtime resident of Blue Bell.
Mrs. Cadwalader grew up in Chestnut Hill and attended the Shady Hill and Agnes Irwin Schools before earning a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1944.
Not long after Mrs. Cadwalader graduated from college, she met her future husband, John, who had been an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania for five years before joining the Navy in 1940. He also was a widower with three small sons. The couple were married in May 1946.
After the war, he received a doctorate in English literature at Penn but returned to the Navy instead of the classroom. Instead of living the life of a professor's wife, Mrs. Cadwalader suddenly was a Navy wife.
Her husband was a U.N. observer in Kashmir in 1951, then spent four years with the Naval Support Force in Antarctica.
While he was gone, she ran the family alone, raising her three stepsons and the couple's two children.
In 1963, the couple retired to a 25-acre farm in Blue Bell, where they gathered native trees and plants.
Mrs. Cadwalader was active for many years in the Visiting Nurse Association of Montgomery County, the Weeders' Garden Club, and the Colonial Dames of America.
In 1983, her husband donated his share of a collection of family portraits by Charles Willson Peale and other famous artists to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Those portraits and family furniture formed an exhibit, "The Cadwalader Family: Art and Style in Early Philadelphia," mounted by the museum in 1996 to mark the 300th anniversary of the family's presence in America.
Mrs. Cadwalader is survived by a daughter, Sandra; a son, Gardner; stepsons John, George and David; two grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; and seven step-great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1998.
Services will be today at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh. Burial will be private.
Memorial donations may be made to the John Cadwalader Scholarship Fund, in care of University of Pennsylvania Trustees, Philadelphia.
Lea Aspinwall Cadwalader, 79, who married a member of a prominent Philadelphia family, then served as a Navy wife after he changed careers, died last Wednesday at Cathedral Village in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia of complications following a stroke.
She had been a longtime resident of Blue Bell.
Mrs. Cadwalader grew up in Chestnut Hill and attended the Shady Hill and Agnes Irwin Schools before earning a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1944.
Not long after Mrs. Cadwalader graduated from college, she met her future husband, John, who had been an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania for five years before joining the Navy in 1940. He also was a widower with three small sons. The couple were married in May 1946.
After the war, he received a doctorate in English literature at Penn but returned to the Navy instead of the classroom. Instead of living the life of a professor's wife, Mrs. Cadwalader suddenly was a Navy wife.
Her husband was a U.N. observer in Kashmir in 1951, then spent four years with the Naval Support Force in Antarctica.
While he was gone, she ran the family alone, raising her three stepsons and the couple's two children.
In 1963, the couple retired to a 25-acre farm in Blue Bell, where they gathered native trees and plants.
Mrs. Cadwalader was active for many years in the Visiting Nurse Association of Montgomery County, the Weeders' Garden Club, and the Colonial Dames of America.
In 1983, her husband donated his share of a collection of family portraits by Charles Willson Peale and other famous artists to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Those portraits and family furniture formed an exhibit, "The Cadwalader Family: Art and Style in Early Philadelphia," mounted by the museum in 1996 to mark the 300th anniversary of the family's presence in America.
Mrs. Cadwalader is survived by a daughter, Sandra; a son, Gardner; stepsons John, George and David; two grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; and seven step-great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1998.
Services will be today at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh. Burial will be private.
Memorial donations may be made to the John Cadwalader Scholarship Fund, in care of University of Pennsylvania Trustees, Philadelphia.
She had been a longtime resident of Blue Bell.
Mrs. Cadwalader grew up in Chestnut Hill and attended the Shady Hill and Agnes Irwin Schools before earning a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in 1944.
Not long after Mrs. Cadwalader graduated from college, she met her future husband, John, who had been an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania for five years before joining the Navy in 1940. He also was a widower with three small sons. The couple were married in May 1946.
After the war, he received a doctorate in English literature at Penn but returned to the Navy instead of the classroom. Instead of living the life of a professor's wife, Mrs. Cadwalader suddenly was a Navy wife.
Her husband was a U.N. observer in Kashmir in 1951, then spent four years with the Naval Support Force in Antarctica.
While he was gone, she ran the family alone, raising her three stepsons and the couple's two children.
In 1963, the couple retired to a 25-acre farm in Blue Bell, where they gathered native trees and plants.
Mrs. Cadwalader was active for many years in the Visiting Nurse Association of Montgomery County, the Weeders' Garden Club, and the Colonial Dames of America.
In 1983, her husband donated his share of a collection of family portraits by Charles Willson Peale and other famous artists to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Those portraits and family furniture formed an exhibit, "The Cadwalader Family: Art and Style in Early Philadelphia," mounted by the museum in 1996 to mark the 300th anniversary of the family's presence in America.
Mrs. Cadwalader is survived by a daughter, Sandra; a son, Gardner; stepsons John, George and David; two grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; and seven step-great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1998.
Services will be today at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh. Burial will be private.
Memorial donations may be made to the John Cadwalader Scholarship Fund, in care of University of Pennsylvania Trustees, Philadelphia.
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See more Cadwalader or Aspinwall memorials in:
- Saint Thomas Episcopal Church Cemetery Cadwalader or Aspinwall
- Whitemarsh Cadwalader or Aspinwall
- Montgomery County Cadwalader or Aspinwall
- Pennsylvania Cadwalader or Aspinwall
- USA Cadwalader or Aspinwall
- Find a Grave Cadwalader or Aspinwall
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