View Funeral Webcast

Annie Lee Bishop Rives

(August 19, 1929 – August 20, 2021)

Annie Lee Bishop Rives was a woman of boundless generosity, quiet strength, and enduring faith.  Her remarkable life was guided by gentleness, kindness, patience, and love. She was a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, and her children called her blessed.

Annie Lee was born on her Poppa Bishop's farm near present-day Leesburg Airport. She took great pride in being a farmer's daughter.  Her father, Henry R. Bishop, Sr., was a farm manager on the Coton Farm in Ashburn.  Annie Lee lived with her family on this farm for 16 years.  She often spoke of life on the farm where her mother, Genevieve Kirby Bishop, helped her raise sheep to sell for spending money.

Annie Lee graduated from Leesburg High School in 1947 and attended James Madison University.  She worked for Garrett Insurance Agency in Leesburg prior to her marriage on November 8, 1952, to Millard E. Rives.  Together this young couple nurtured and educated three daughters, Susan, Linda, and Nancy, in Arlington. After her children were grown, she returned to work for the U.S. Forest Service and the Agency for International Development.  She was also employed by the Arlington County School Board, retiring in 1988.

Annie Lee knew the Lord from childhood, and her faith was an integral part of who she was and all she did.  At the age of 19, she taught eight-year-old girls in Sunday School at Leesburg Baptist Church.  For many years, she was an active member of First Baptist Church of Clarendon.  In later years, she returned to Leesburg Baptist Church where she joyfully sang in the Sanctuary Choir. Recently, she attended Galilee United Methodist Chapel at Lansdowne Woods.

In 2003, Millard and Lee (as she became known) moved to the community of Leisure World, now Lansdowne Woods, located on the land where she grew up.  In this place, Lee's father once planted spring corn for his herd of Holstein cows and her mother raised chickens, turkeys, and kept a large garden.  Lee would spend the next 18 years in a condo that overlooked this view from her childhood.  In her own words, she wrote: "I am grateful for my time spent in the city, but I am very glad to be back on the farm and am glad to have been a farmer's daughter."

Annie Lee Bishop Rives is survived by her beloved family, her brother, Henry R. Bishop, Jr. (Frances) and her cousin, Thelma Fleming; her three daughters, Susan Domnarski (Henry), Linda Buechling (Steve), and Nancy Rives, along with three grandchildren, Seth Domnarski, Heather Fulginiti (Vince), and Sarah Domnarski; and two great-grandchildren, Mia and Luca Fulginiti.

Annie Lee was a vibrant and compassionate friend to many who will cherish her memory.

Family and friends are invited to a time of visitation at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 26, at Colonial Funeral Home, 201 Edwards Ferry Road, NE, Leesburg, VA 20176.  A Celebration of Life Service will begin at 12:00 noon. Interment to follow at Union Cemetery.