Elaine Bronez died on Monday, January 6, 2020 at Montgomery Hospice Casey House in Maryland. She was 96.

Elaine Rosalie Dylla was born on June 17, 1923 in Newark, New Jersey to Henry and Hedwig Dylla, first generation German immigrants.  Elaine brought energy, humor, creativity and compassion to the people and many causes in her life.   

Though her childhood weaved through the Great Depression, she described her youth as exciting and carefree, living over the bakery her parents owned and falling asleep to the sound of the bakers below working through the night; whimsically playing jacks and coin games with her friends against the alley walls on their way to school; sneaking in to nearby Olympic Park; and playing clarinet in the high school marching band.  She eschewed her parents’ assumption that she would become a secretary and shocked them by enrolling in Bucknell College, which she chose because she erroneously thought a vaccination would not be required.  She became known there for her Tarzan yell and for petitioning to establish the Sorority for All Those Not in a Sorority.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, she joined the Red Cross and was deployed to the small South Pacific island of Tinian where she planned recreational activities for the troops during the final years of World War II, capturing everyday life through cartoon sketches.  While taking a day trip on the island, she stumbled -- literally and figuratively -- on to the Enola Gay, parked unceremoniously in the undergrowth, and grabbed a “Do Not Remove” tag from the cockpit, only later discovering the plane’s significance as having recently dropped the first atomic bombs.  After the war, she obtained a master’s degree in student personnel administration from Columbia University.  While there, Alfred Kinsey’s research team was recruiting interview participants and she volunteered, presumably becoming part of what was later published as the groundbreaking Kinsey Reports.  After graduation she worked professionally as a YWCA program director, conference organizer, and at a women’s prison.

Elaine married Ray William Bronez of Chicago, Illinois on December 26, 1949 in Irvington, New Jersey. She and Ray lived in Ohio, France, and Germany before settling down in in Alexandria, Virginia. While raising her four children there she was always in motion and a force for good in the local community. She was a long time, active member of the Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church (MVUC) serving on the Board of Trustees, chairing the social action committee and creating the “Good Companions” program.  She received a MVUC Lifetime Service Award in 1996 and an Unsung Hero Award in 2008 and was noted for her comedy routine, “How to avoid being asked for money by the church canvasser.”   Elaine was an early and energetic advocate to end segregation and participated in what is known as one of – and perhaps the first -- “sit in” at a Washington, D. C. drug store lunch counter.  Two leaflets from this event are part of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History collection.  A 1976 photo caption from a profile in the Alexandria Gazette dubbed her a “professional volunteer” and she was quoted, “You get spoiled because you get to do what you feel is really important.”  Notable among these many “important things” was her appointment to the Fairfax County Commission on Aging, an interest spurred by her dedicated elder caregiving to both her own mother and mother in law.  She was also active with the Fairfax County League of Women Voters, which anointed her an honorary life member and was a leader of the Northern Virginia fair housing movement, penning several seminal reports on homelessness and housing access; partnering with local businesses, realtors and elected leaders; and leading door-to-door education of neighbors to advocate for the elimination of racial discrimination in the sale of housing.  She was a founding member of the Fairfax County Route One Task Force for Human Resources and a board member at the United Community Ministries and the Fairfax County Community Action Agency.  Later in life she re-entered the work force as a sales representative for a condom company and – duster in hand -- visited local drug stores to ensure the displays were visible and clean.  She and a friend also started a business selling African sculptures.  She resumed her professional career as the Community Education Coordinator at Alexandria’s Groveton High School and then as the inaugural director of Arlington County’s Operation Match program.  Elaine survived both breast and colon cancer and took part in an NIH clinical trial on macular degeneration.

Elaine is survived by four children and their spouses:  Jeff Bronez and Alicia Browner (Austin, TX), Thomas and Nancy Bronez (Vienna, VA), Melissa Bronez and John Lewis (Garrett Park, MD)  and Mark Bronez and Veronique Lauriault (San Francisco, CA); eight grandchildren: Peter Bronez,  Michael Bronez, Henry Bronez, Annie Bronez, Tessa Bronez, Kaya Bronez Lauriault, Dashel Lewis and Zoe Lewis; and four great grandchildren.  Her husband, her grandson, Wesley Bronez, and her brother Henry “Hank” Dylla preceded her in death.