By Kathleen McSweeney

When thinking of the neighbors who have helped build community in Lyon Park, Elizabeth Wray is at the top of the list. Even if you don’t know her, you have seen her in one of her many incarnations over the past several decades. She has been Mrs. Claus for years at the Lyon Park holiday parties, a friendly witch who has distributed donuts and cider at the annual Halloween bonfire, ticket seller at the pancake breakfast and the annual chili dinner, cupcake baker at nearly every bake sale, representative to the Lyon Park Board of Governors, and the leader of the Woman’s Club.

Elizabeth’s first career was as an elementary school teacher in Hagerstown, MD. She met her husband in Hagerstown, and his work drew them to Arlington. They moved to her Highland Street home in November 1962, with toddlers in tow, and one more on the way. The Henry Clay Elementary School, which stood on the site of what is now Zitkala-Sa Park, was a huge draw being just steps away from their new home.

In 1977, Elizabeth became a single mother with four children. She worked to support her family and still managed to volunteer in her community. She worked
for C&P Telephone company, which was called Bell Atlantic by the time she retired in 1998. (Today we know it as Verizon.) She enjoyed her work at the phone company, and she put her teaching skills to good use training new customer service representatives. She was active in the PTA and supported the activities of the Clarendon Cub Scout troops and Boy Scout troop based at Mount Olivet Church, her sons drawn by the many activities and canoe trips. Neighbors can still see the canoes Elizabeth stores in her driveway when they aren’t being used by the troop. She has been a member of the LPCA ever since she moved to the neighborhood, and chuckled when she noted that she should have thought to become a lifetime member, seeing as she has been paying her annual LPCA dues for about 62 years. 

She knocked on Lyon Park doors for years to raise money for the American Heart Association and the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society, the latter a personal mission since she was one of eight children and has lost six of her siblings to cancer. For years she has made memory bears for a hospice center in Fairfax. Families provide volunteers with garments from their loved ones who spent their final days at the hospice, and volunteers like Elizabeth transform the clothes into a stuffed animal. Elizabeth finds it very rewarding to help families deal with loss and she cherishes the notes she has received from grieving yet grateful family members. 

When asked what she likes about Lyon Park, she says her roots run very deep. She has lived here for over six decades, raised her children here, and has good friends and neighbors. Elizabeth knows that if she needed anything, she is confident her neighbors would help. It should be noted that this sense of community doesn’t happen by accident. Elizabeth has been the torchbearer for many of our neighborhood traditions, and through
her kind and consistent example, has been instrumental in making Lyon Park the close-knit neighborhood that
she cherishes.