Audra Constance Dunn, née Treadway, died on 26 March 2026 in McLean, Virginia, of complications from Alzheimer's disease. Audra (Mom) was born on 9 January 1931 in Huntington, West Virginia (WV). As with so many others of her generation, her early life was dominated by the hardships of the Great Depression and the Second World War. Her loving, determined, and resourceful mother (Grandma), Golda Leona Wells, née Pierce, moved the family from Huntington to Point Pleasant, WV, after Mom's dad abandoned the family when Mom was young. Grandma raised Mom, her three sisters, and one brother on a threadbare budget, working mostly as a seamstress and with help from Grandma's sister, our great-aunt Syb. Stubbornness, resourcefulness, and grit, rooted in these experiences, served Mom well in the remarkable life she went on to live.

Mom met her husband and our dad, Bertram F. Dunn, in Point Pleasant. They started dating as high school students in 1947—when Mom arranged for a friend to throw a party that is now recorded in family lore as "the entrapment"—and were married in 1952. Their love lasted both lifetimes, through almost 66 years of marriage, multiple moves around the world, the births of six children, and all the joys and sadness that accompany a life as long and rich as hers. She was devoted to him, and he to her, always and every day. Dad's last words expressed his love for her; Mom's devotion to him—and her need to express it—persisted even as Alzheimer's slowly erased her memory after Dad died. For us, Mom and Dad truly were one. They raised us as a team and relied on and relished each other's company until Dad's last day.

Mom was the first in her family to attend college. She graduated from West Virginia University (WVU) in 1956 with a B.A. in history, with high honors, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Mom worked as an accountant before and after college and as a substitute English teacher. Both jobs were to haunt (and benefit, of course) her yet-to-be-born children in the coming decades because they facilitated her iron grip on the family's finances and her corrections to our sloppy spoken and written English. Then, as with so many women of her generation, she dedicated her life to her family, raising us in places and under circumstances she could not have imagined earlier in her life.

Mom finished her undergraduate degree while our Dad attended law school at WVU. After both completed their education, Mom and Dad briefly moved to Parkersburg, WV, where Mom gave birth to Malinda Ellen in 1956. Dad was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency into the clandestine service, and they (and we) set off on a 35-year adventure that took the family to seven countries on three continents and produced five more children. In a matter of a few weeks in 1958, Mom, Dad, and their infant daughter set off by plane and ship from suburban Washington, DC—never having set foot outside of the United States—and moved to a remote hill station in northwest Pakistan. They spent the next five years in three locations in Pakistan, during which two more children—William Edward and Jonathan Clay—arrived. Nepal (and another child, Andrew Scott), the United States (and two more children, Lora Ann and Christopher Alan), Taiwan (while Dad served in Vietnam), Afghanistan (during which Mom helped a KGB officer defect at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, and experienced a flat tire while driving through the Khyber Pass with only a female friend, both stories that she loved to tell later in life), two postings in India, Ethiopia, and the UK followed. In London, their final overseas assignment, she enjoyed the kid-free time she had earned, seeing plays, traveling with Dad, and experiencing a tea party at Buckingham Palace.

Mom moved us more than a dozen times (and, as far as we know, only briefly lost one of us at Dulles Airport on one occasion), saw to our education, cared for us through minor and major illnesses, loved us firmly but unconditionally when we did stupid things or were having a rough time, and worried about us more than she should have. Mom gamely camped with her crew in the Hindu Kush, the Himalayas, and the Ethiopian highlands; endured a six-week-long cross-country trip one summer with six kids in a VW van with no air conditioning so we would come to better know the United States; and protected, entertained, and cared for us in often difficult circumstances in countries in varying degrees of disarray.

After her overseas adventures ended, Mom settled comfortably into the life of a grandmother. She doted on her grandkids—Sasha, Austin, Avery, Jason, Alex, and Em—all of whom brought her great happiness over several decades. In her last years of life, a visit by Em, her youngest grandchild, lit up her face with joy even as she endured the slowly enveloping fog of Alzheimer's and her ability to recall her extraordinary life faded away. This fiercely independent woman gradually, sometimes grudgingly, allowed us to start caring for her, offering us an opportunity to repay a small fraction of all she did for us over 95 years of life.

Mom is survived—and loved—by her children, Malinda (Mark), Edward, Jonathan (Karen), Andrew, Lora (Pat), and Christopher (Barbara), and her grandchildren Sasha, Austin, Jason, Alex, Avery, and Em. Our Dad; her sisters Betty, Patsy, and Ann; her brother Jack; her daughter-in-law Kathy; and her grandson Matthew Christopher predeceased Mom.

We would be remiss if we did not extend our profound gratitude to Mom's caregivers in her last years of life, including Rebecca, Yali, Helen, Mai, and Elizabeth. These women loved, comforted, and cared for our Mom until her last breath, and we are forever indebted to them.

Audra Constance Dunn will return home to Point Pleasant to be buried next to Dad and near her beloved mother and brother, Jack. A private funeral service will be held on Saturday, April 25, at Christ Episcopal Church in Point Pleasant, and she will then be laid to rest at Lone Oak Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a donation to the Alzheimer's Association (https://www.alz.org) or the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation (https://www.ciamemorialfoundation.org).