October 17, 1938 - May 18, 2020Fairfax, VA
Loretta Hilliard Allen-Adams, 81, passed away from COVID-19 and Alzheimer's at an assisted-living residence in Fairfax, VA on Monday, May 18, 2020. A long-time resident of Raleigh, Loretta earned a BA in Home Economics from Elon College before joining the Peace Corps and serving in rural Bolivia.
Upon returning from Bolivia Loretta earned an MS in Child Development from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She worked in day care management and licensing, then a series of corporate roles in RTP. In "retirement" with her husband John Adams, she volunteered as an American Red Cross Disaster Action Team volunteer. After September 11, 2001, they traveled to New York City to work supporting the Red Cross response there. They were also fixtures at the Drag Bingo fundraisers for the Alliance of AIDS Services – Carolina.
Loretta and her family were dedicated members of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church and there she frequently taught Sunday school (played with babies), volunteered in the office and helped many of the community causes supported by Pullen. When not volunteering Loretta and John traveled extensively, spending weeks all over South America, Europe and Asia. Among her hobbies sewing predominated. She worked tirelessly improving her skills, going to classes and camps, and won a blue ribbon in sewing at the NC State Fair.
Loretta was known as a generous and welcoming hostess, befriending all manner of strangers at the family gatherings she and John often hosted. Those who returned a second time were frequently put to work prepping food or setting up tables, on the welcomed assumption that they were no longer strangers but part of the family. All attendees quickly learned that there was a LIST, and a SCHEDULE, and you were sticking to the schedule. No. Matter. What (mostly).
Mrs. Allen-Adams was preceded in death by her husband John David Adams and brothers Reece and Douglas Hilliard. She is survived by her son Pruitt Young Allen and his wife Julie of Arlington, VA; stepsons Kenneth Lee Adams of Arizona, James Andrew Adams of Apex and wife Harriet and their children Caitlin Davidson, Daniel Watts, and Carol Anne Watts; not nearly enough grandbabies; and her first husband and friend Gerald Young Allen of Hampton, VA.
Due to our community's COVID-19 response, no memorial or other services are scheduled at this time. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to one of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church's many local, national or international charitable efforts (www.pullen.org/missions-outreach/ ).
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Published in The News and Observer on May 25, 2020.