Anne Hall Whitt Thompson
Author and Advocate

Anne Whitt Thompson, 66, an advocate for foster children and orphans who wrote about her own experience as an abandoned child in the 1983 book "The Suitcases," died of cancer Dec. 20 at Sibley Memorial Hospital.

Mrs. Thompson's book was published under her maiden name, Anne Hall Whitt. A condensed version was distributed by Reader's Digest in 21 countries. It was recorded in English and French by the Library of Congress.

It told of the lives of Mrs. Thompson and her two sisters as they were moved about as young children in orphanages and foster homes in North Carolina, after the death of their mother and abandonment by their father.

Mrs. Thompson, who lived in Gaithersburg, was born in Charlotte. Her mother died when she was 6, and she spent the remainder of her childhood years in orphanages and foster homes. She moved to the Washington area about 1950.

As an adult, Mrs. Thompson served on the Maryland foster care review board, and she was a trustee of North Carolina's Crossnore School, an orphanage where she had once lived.

As an advocate for children, she supported the concept of well-supervised group homes over loosely supervised foster care. In 1990, she initiated an informal "bring back the orphanage" campaign that helped focus national attention on problems in foster care.

Survivors include her husband, Richard C. Thompson of Gaithersburg; two sons, Richard C. Thompson Jr. of Arlington and Timothy Thompson of Washington; two sisters in Atlanta and North Carolina; and a granddaughter.

--Published in The Washington Post, Jan 4, 1997.

Anne Hall Whitt Thompson
Author and Advocate

Anne Whitt Thompson, 66, an advocate for foster children and orphans who wrote about her own experience as an abandoned child in the 1983 book "The Suitcases," died of cancer Dec. 20 at Sibley Memorial Hospital.

Mrs. Thompson's book was published under her maiden name, Anne Hall Whitt. A condensed version was distributed by Reader's Digest in 21 countries. It was recorded in English and French by the Library of Congress.

It told of the lives of Mrs. Thompson and her two sisters as they were moved about as young children in orphanages and foster homes in North Carolina, after the death of their mother and abandonment by their father.

Mrs. Thompson, who lived in Gaithersburg, was born in Charlotte. Her mother died when she was 6, and she spent the remainder of her childhood years in orphanages and foster homes. She moved to the Washington area about 1950.

As an adult, Mrs. Thompson served on the Maryland foster care review board, and she was a trustee of North Carolina's Crossnore School, an orphanage where she had once lived.

As an advocate for children, she supported the concept of well-supervised group homes over loosely supervised foster care. In 1990, she initiated an informal "bring back the orphanage" campaign that helped focus national attention on problems in foster care.

Survivors include her husband, Richard C. Thompson of Gaithersburg; two sons, Richard C. Thompson Jr. of Arlington and Timothy Thompson of Washington; two sisters in Atlanta and North Carolina; and a granddaughter.

--Published in The Washington Post, Jan 4, 1997.