Olive “Marilyn” Stokes, 87, who worked as a front office and principal’s secretary at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria for more than two decades, died March 22 at her home in Alexandria.

She had complications from Alzheimer’s disease, said her son Denny Stokes.

After her retirement in 1987, Mrs. Stokes volunteered in the White House mail room. For four decades, she sang in the Fairlington United Methodist Church choir.

Olive Marilyn Lightner was born in Chillicothe, Mo., where she graduated from business school in the early 1940s. During World War II, she volunteered with the United Service Organizations. She settled in Northern Virginia in 1954.

Her husband of 57 years, Clinton “Smokey” Stokes, died in 2003. Survivors include two children, Judy Stokes of Annandale and Denny Stokes of Springfield; and two grandchildren.

— Emily Langer