Eileen Ann (Espenshade) Greene peacefully departed this earth and her many family members and friends on December 30, 2019 at the John F Keever Jr. Solace Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Born May of 1947, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she spent her early years in the Abington area near Philadelphia. She received her `B. A. in Math, which she excelled in, from Shippensburg University. In her early adult life she was blessed with two children, Robert Benjamin Greene and Malinda Louise Greene, who she revered and who remained, in many ways, the center of her life and universe. Malinda lived with Eileen most of her life. Robbie and Malinda both feel blessed to have had Eileen as their mom.
While Eileen was totally devoted to her family, she also was very successful in business. In the early years she worked for the Department of State and the Federal Government in a number of foreign locations including Prague, Okinawa and Tokyo. Following those years, she worked in upper level management positions as a software engineer and project design with several major corporations in the Washington DC area. She and Malinda lived together in her comfortable home in Reston, Virginia, most often with a dog close at hand. Her favorite was her Dalmatian, Jenny. After she retired in 2016, she made the move she has been planning for years, to Asheville, North Carolina so both she and Malinda could be closer to Robbie, his wife Kelly and her grandson, Aslan. Time with them was one of her life’s greatest pleasures.
Eileen loved laughing. Whether it was with her children or with her beloved extended family on their annual vacation to Sea Isle City New Jersey (where she first visited in 1954!) she found humor in the littlest things. All who shared those times note that she was a joy to be with. Her deep-throated chuckle will long be remembered. That trip was her favorite time of the year because she loved all her family.
She also loved being with her college buddies - an elite group of ladies known amongst themselves as “roomies” - for their annual stay in Ocean City, New Jersey. With the roomies Eileen was able to partake in some of her favorite things in life —good food, good wine, boisterous laughter and countless hours of cards, mainly pinochle. She and her friends seemed to adopt the mantra that what happened in Ocean City, stayed in Ocean City, which based on rumor was probably for the best. Suffice it to say, they enjoyed themselves.
Eileen raised two wonderful children as a single parent, one with Autism , which illustrates how self-reliant and independent she was. Not only self-reliant, she was selfless and always taught Robbie and Malinda to choose the right path. She loved bird watching, reading, traveling, cooking, Tai Chi, wine and flowers. She was an active member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Reston Virginia and Trinity Episcopal Church in Asheville North Carolina. She especially loved the traditional church music. She was a lifelong football fan enjoying both the Redskins as well as the Eagles. She also inexplicably loved tennis. One of her joys on a weekend was to watch an exciting tennis match, with the likes of Djokovic, Nadal, or the recent prodigy Coco Grauff. She loved it so much she even traveled twice to New York to watch the US Open.
As she is remembered, friends and family are struck with how very courageous she continued to be throughout her early life as a single mom, and later in life when confronted with health issues. In the end, she faced adversity with courage and humor as she had throughout her life.
She was survived by her aforementioned children, and two brothers, Frederick Martin Espenshade of Arizona and Lynn Edward Espenshade of New Jersey all of whom she loved dearly. All of her family were drawn to her, including niece Jennifer (Jen) Espenshade, who Eileen considered a second daughter. She also was loved and will be missed by her extended Greene family.
A celebration of Eileen’s life was held Trinity Episcopal Church, 60 Church Street, Asheville NC, 28801 on January 25, 2020 at 11am. In lieu of flowers, donations in Eileen’s memory will be appreciated by:
The Autism Society of America
4340 East West Hwy Suite 350
Bethesda, MD 20814
https://www.autism-society.org/get-involved/donate/
- or -
Trinity Episcopal Church
60 Church Street
Asheville, North Carolina 28801
http://www.trinityasheville.org/
Obituary by John and Linda Greene
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