Rosemary Letonoff, devoted mother, world traveler

Rosemary Thomas Letonoff who grew up in Wilmington and Rehoboth, returning to the resort town throughout her life, died peacefully in Lewes Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024.

Rosemary was born July 11, 1937, in the Panama Canal zone to Mary Govatos and Marvin Thomas, a career military man, who was killed during the second world war.  

As a French major at Ladycliff College in Highland Falls, N.Y. Rosemary spent a year abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris, where she ended up being cast as a debutante in “The Reluctant Debutante” (1958), staring Rex Harrison and Sandra Dee. Watching this movie with her children and grandchildren was a source of great joy over the years.

Shortly after graduation, Rosemary married Victor Letonoff (Ladycliff abutted the West Point Campus, where they met and where Rosemary’s father and older brother, Marvin, also graduated). Rosemary then spent twenty years as a military wife, raising her three sons, and teaching school with the Department of Defense schools.

After her divorce from Victor and after her children were grown, she embarked on a new career with the DoD, serving as both a teacher and an administrator in Germany, Italy and Spain. These were decades of great adventure, with Rosemary traveling all over the world, often accompanied by her grown children and eventually their spouses.

While stationed in Germany during this time, she became a surrogate mother to two young women, Claudia and Gabrielle Moldovan, who were refugees from Romania.

Upon retirement in 2003 to the Tampa area to be close to her youngest son Lars and his family, Rosemary delved into a lifelong passion and hobby, breeding and showing Italian Greyhounds and Chinese Cresteds, many of whom became national and international champions.

She enjoyed swimming, was a mean bridge player, and loved sitting on the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk watching the crowds and eating a Kohr Brothers ice cream. But more than anything she loved travel, filling album upon album with photos of her adventures.   

 She is survived by her three sons, Victor Letonoff (Maribeth), Eric Letonoff (Amanda) and Lars Letonoff (Janice); her five grandchildren, Gillian, Ted, Lucas, Jason and Jude; and by sister-in-law and best friend since  10th grade, Marion Thomas.

A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 21, at Lewes Presbyterian Church, 133 Kings Hwy., Lewes.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in Rosemary’s memory to Brandywine Valley SPCA, bvspca.org/ways-to-give.

Visit Rosemary’s Life Memorial webpage at parsellfuneralhomes.com.