Leah Lockhart

Leah Uehling Lockhart: A Life of Kindness to All Creatures

Leah Celeste Uehling was born in Afton, Wisconsin, on a dairy farm owned by her parents, Otto Edward Uehling and Mina Wilson Uehling. As a very young child, she would often go to the barn before dawn with her father as he milked the family’s herd of Guernsey cattle. It was here, sitting on a bale of hay and playing with the farm cats, that Leah’s storied love of animals was born.

The fourth of five Uehling children, Leah had a typical farm-girl childhood. That meant helping tend the family gardens, raising her own 4-H calves, and learning to drive a tractor, a skill that earned her a driver’s license as a teen without having to take the test. She attended high school in Janesville, Wisconsin, then earned a psychology degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

A free and independent spirit with a sense of adventure, Leah worked for over 15 years before finally settling down—a path not typical among her contemporaries. After college, she was a secretary with Johnson Wax in Racine, Wisconsin, housed in a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (“The most uncomfortable chairs ever designed,” Leah once remarked); toiled (with older sister Dorie) as a riveter in San Francisco during the war; worked for the U.S. government in postwar Germany, and also taught in American public schools.

Once married to Col. Leon (“Lock”) H. Lockhart, whom she had met while overseas, she devoted most of her time and energies to making a home, mastering the challenges of gardening, and rescuing stray animals. A military wife, she lived near bases in Annandale, Virginia, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and finally, upon Col. Lockhart’s retirement from service, in Columbia, South Carolina. Leah helped found an organization that promoted the timely spaying and neutering of dogs and cats and also provided assistance to pet owners who found the costs prohibitive; she was later honored by the city of Columbia for this groundbreaking work. Leah also worked for social justice wherever she could: She was an active advocate for civil rights, a long-time participant in immigrant resettlement programs, and a tutor to challenged children. Always artistic, she also spent many years on crafts such as scenic eggs and Asian flower arranging.

One of her most important roles was as a second mother to her husband’s three children from a previous marriage—Stephen, Constance, and Karen Emily—where she mastered the delicate balance in loving and nurturing children who were not her own. After a series of strokes and other maladies, husband Lock required most of Leah’s attention for the final 10 years of his life. Five years after his death, she relocated to Greenspring in Springfield, Virginia, to be nearer to children in Richmond and to her niece Ella Wilcox and her family in Falls Church.

According to Jo Shoesmith (daughter of longtime close friend and Greenspring neighbor Martha “Mike” Shoesmith), “Leah was a person of small stature, but she could move mountains.” A vegetarian of some 25 years, Leah and a team of like-minded residents banded together to get daily vegetarian options on its restaurant menus. She was an active member of the Village Church, helping with committee work and liturgical services, and a frequent, entertaining contributor to the Greenspring newsletter Memories. With her sister-in-law Gwen Lockhart, also a Greenspringer, she attended musical events, plays, and fundraising galas for both the Greenspring Benevolent Fund and the Student Scholarship Fund.

Leah enjoyed a long life, in part due to strong family genes and her healthful lifestyle, which for over 40 years included a daily 30-minute walk. Indeed, at age 80, Leah toured China with a church group—and was the only one who made it up the 4,000 steps to the Great Wall!

Leah survived all of her siblings—sisters Beth (Preston) McNall and Doris (Archer) Wilcox and brothers Donald and Louis—as well as two of her stepchildren, Steve and Connie Lockhart. She is survived by stepdaughter Emily Lockhart and by numerous nieces and nephews, including Bruce, Anne, and Laura McNall; Kathy and Marie Uehling (whose siblings Jamie and Donna have both passed on); Ella and Carl Wilcox and Nora (Mark) Kniskern; and numerous grandnieces/nephews across the United States.

A woman of deep faith, Leah frequently said that the one piece of advice that could always be shared was “Be a little kinder.”

Leah will join husband Lock at Arlington Cemetery’s Columbarium when their pandemic-delayed schedule permits. Donations in her memory can be sent to the following:

   •  The Carter Center (453 John Lewis Freedom Pkwy. NE, Atlanta, GA 30307)

   •  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (501 Front Street, Norfolk, VA 23510)

   •  ECHO, Inc. (7205 Old Keene Mill Road, Springfield, VA 22150)

   •  The Village Church at Greenspring (7420 Spring Village Drive, Springfield, VA 22150)