Anna H. Dennis

July 7, 1924 - April 21, 2019

Anna H. Dennis was just 39 years old, a single mom with a young daughter, when she immigrated to the United States in 1964 and made her home in the Washington, D.C. area. It meant learning English, adapting to a new culture and surviving in an unfamiliar world. She not only survived, she thrived, making a new life for her family far from the war-torn Europe she grew up in. Born in 1924 in Chotěšov, a small town in the Plzeň region of the Czech Republic, she died early Easter Sunday morning, April 21, 2019 at her home in Annapolis. She was 94. As a teenager she lived in Prag with her family until 1938 when Germany annexed Czechoslovakia’s region known as Sudetenland. Her family returned to Chotěšov until the end of the war. After World War II, ethnic Sudeten Germans were expelled from the region. Separated during transport from her parents and siblings, she found herself on a U.S. military base in Bavaria, Germany where she met fellow Czech refugee Josef Schmied. They later married and lived in Frankfurt am Main, where he died in 1963. The following year she and her daughter came to the U.S. where she found work in the administration office of Strayer College (today Strayer University) and later served as executive assistant to the college president. In 1983, she married Benjamin F. Dennis, who died on his 97th birthday October 2016. They enjoyed life together for 33 years. Camping, exploring estate sales, crabbing and fishing were among their favorite pastimes. During the final days of life, her daughter Anita M. Schmied, son-in-law Gary S. Medovich, family and friends were by her side. A private service will be held at Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery on Friday, May 17. Memorial donations may be made to the SPCA of Anne Arundel Country or the Hospice of the Chesapeake.