WASHINGTON — Memorial services for the late Ethie Weaver Radanovich have been set for Northern Virginia on Wednesday and the Sierra Nevada foothills on Sunday.
The dual services reflect the cross-country lives led by the one-time political consultant and the husband who survives her, Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. Friends abound on both coasts.
Ethie Radanovich passed away Thursday at age 50, following a three-year bout with ovarian caner.
At noon Wednesday, her husband's congressional colleagues, family members and others will gather at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria, Va. The church is not far from the Radanovich home, where she had been undergoing hospice care for the past several weeks.
"I recently visited her and saw, again, that through this entire ordeal she never lost her strong determination," Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, wrote in a letter advising House members of Ethie Radanovich's death. "We will always remember the happiness and fun that she brought to life."
The Wednesday service had to be scheduled around an epic East Coast snowstorm that has confounded the capital region's road and air travel. Radanovich has been ferrying relatives from the airport, even as many congressional offices have been closed because of the inclement weather.
"They're trying to deal with the logistics of getting people back here," Radanovich's spokesman, Spencer Pederson, said Monday.
Complications could continue Wednesday, as forecasters are calling for another storm to dump up to 10 inches of additional snow on northern Virginia.
On Sunday, Feb. 21, a second memorial service will be held at the Sierra Meadows Country Club, 46516 Opah Drive. The country club is in the unincorporated Sierra Nevada foothills community of Ahwahnee, part of the congressional district Radanovich has represented in the House of Representatives since 1995.
In late December, citing his wife's illness, Radanovich announced he would not seek re-election.
Ethie Radanovich was born Ethelinde R. Weaver in Bartlesville, Okla., in 1959.
"I grew up with Ethie in Bartlesville," current Bartlesville resident Mindy Leisure wrote in an online guestbook. "She was always there with a kind word and smile, and could always make you laugh."
Ethie Weaver graduated from the University of Oklahoma, where she was a member of the President's Leadership Class and Pi Beta Phi sorority. She initially came to Washington to work for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She later moved to San Francisco to join Woodward & McDowell, a consulting firm specializing in ballot proposition campaigns.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her 11-year-old son, King, and two sisters.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Mariposa Bears Football League, c/o Dave McNally, P.O. Box 2098, Mariposa, Calif., 95338, or to Mariposa Parks & Recreation Department for the Mariposa Little League, c/o Shannon Hansen, P.O. Box 732, Mariposa, Calif., 95338.