Louise LeTendre
Obituary Reports the death of an individual, providing an account of the person’s life including their achievements, any controversies in which they were involved, and reminiscences by people who knew them.
Louise Anne LeTendre died on Aug. 5 at the age of 94.
She was a smart, accomplished woman who lived independently all over the world and was highly praised and awarded in her field of library science. She spent most of her life creating libraries and preserving and organizing research materials for the U.S. Army as a Department of the Army Civilian (DAC).
Louise was born in Peekskill on Mar. 29, 1930. Her mother, Anna, was the oldest of six sisters and one brother. Louise’s father, Napoleon LeTendre, worked at the family grocery store for a short time, but her parents soon divorced. Louise and her mom remained in their extended family home. She grew up there with her Slovakian grandparents who she adored and was surrounded by her loving aunts and an uncle. All family members spent time working in the store, and their lives included the Slovak culture, food and religion of the local Greek Catholic Church.
Louise graduated from Peekskill High School in 1948, and then earned an associate degree in domestic science from SUNY Canton. She worked for the Singer Sewing Company in New York City and became an excellent seamstress and clothing designer. From this experience she always appreciated and wore tasteful, well-made clothing. She returned to Peekskill and worked at the local library. Soon the Peekskill Military Academy hired her as a librarian.
In 1958 she met and married her husband, Gordon Munford, the director of music there. They were divorced a year later. The Commandant of the Cadets at the Peekskill Military Academy referred Louise to a job opening in Europe for a U.S. Army librarian. And so began her lifelong career as a librarian in the military.
Her Army history is long and accomplished. Louise began by managing U.S. Army base libraries in Europe in 1964. She was always looking to improve her education and pursued a full scholarship at the University of Indiana for a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree in library science. Louise’s abilities were noticed early on. Soon the state of Illinois hired her to create their prison library system.
In 1973 the Army sent Louise to Saigon during the Vietnam War, and she narrowly escaped in 1975 as the American soldiers were evacuating. Had she embarked on the original plane, she would have gone down with it. The reason she delayed her departure was to protect her Vietnamese staff and ensure their safety, including her hairdresser and her nephew. Being a generous, caring host, she got them to New York and supported them until they were independently successful.
After the fall of Saigon, Louise was temporarily assigned to the Military Academy at West Point, and then transferred to West Berlin where she remained until 1980.
She then was with the Army Concepts Analysis Agency in Washington, D.C. In 1983 she was promoted to chief librarian at the U.S Army Ballistics Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. She returned again to Germany in 1989 just as the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall were falling and remained there until 1992. She was a trusted agent there and negotiated with major Eastern European universities to transfer collections and furnishings to cultural institutions. This enabled the first American Studies Program to be established in Eastern Europe.
She ended her long career back at the Aberdeen Proving Ground where she updated the library system by introducing electronic and digital equipment. She retired at the age of 85 in 2015.
She was promoted within the Army numerous times and was given many awards: the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the Commander’s Award from the Department of the Army and the Medal of Honor First Class from The Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the award for civilian service in Vietnam from the Army and the Navy. In 2007 she received the ARL Laboratory Award for administrative excellence.
Louise was always curious about her ancestors and researched her genealogy. While living in Germany in the 1990s, Louise sought out her Slovakian family members in what was then Czechoslovakia. After many visits to the towns called Lucina and Bratislava, Louise made contact with several cousins. She brought two of them to the U.S. to learn English and attend school here. She created a connection between the American and European cousins for which we are very grateful.
Despite having little contact with her father, she attended LeTendre reunions and met several family members. She discovered that she was a great-niece of nurse and humanitarian Clara Barton, and had a great-grandfather who was a Native American.
Late in life Louise was surprised to meet her daughter, Pam, who was given up for adoption at her birth in 1953. They recently had a happy reunion and Louise was glad to know that Pam had been raised by a loving family. Pam has been happily embraced by Louise’s first cousins.
Louise lived her final years in a large condo in Havre de Grace, Md. overlooking the Bush River, decorated with handmade furniture she acquired in Vietnam and art from her extensive world travels. She relished the cultures she experienced and was an excellent cook, especially of the Slovakian food of her childhood. She made nutritious meals but didn’t forget a bit of chocolate on the side.
She enjoyed the company of many friends and family and always toasted Nas Drovya at the start of a meal. She had a beautiful singing voice and loved opera, symphony and folk music, ballet and theater, which she experienced all over the world. Louise led a rich life filled with adventure, service and intellectual pursuits. She was a very, very interesting woman.
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