Alexandria — Janet Elizabeth (Libby) Hannan Hyman completed a long and full life of 99 years at Goodwin House in Falls Church on Aug. 16, 2012. She was born on Oct. 8, 1912 to William and Janet McClymont Hannan of Lincoln, Nebraska. The family moved to Albany, where her father was head of the legislative reference section of the New York State Library, and she graduated from the Albany Academy for Girls in 1930. Libby graduated magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College in 1934. In 1940 she earned a Ph.D. in political science at Radcliffe/Harvard . At Harvard she met law student Joseph Baer Hyman. They married in 1938. Her husband Joe served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II, then joined the staff of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee before practicing law in Arlington until his death in 1996.
Following a fellowship at the Brookings Institution and research work at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mrs. Hyman was employed as a political analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department from 1946 to 1978. She authored works entitled “Congress Investigates Tin” Digest Press, American University Graduate School (1936); “Political Decolonization: the Philippines, Ceylon, Syria and the Lebanon, and Iraq” (Ph.D. diss. Radcliffe College, 1940); “Dollars in Latin America; an Old Problem in a New Setting “, New York Council on Foreign Relations (1941) (co-author); “Soldiers in Politics: New Insights on Latin American Armed Forces”, Political Science Quarterly, vol. LXXXVII, No. 3, (Sept. 1972); “A Church Militant: Scotland, 1661-1690”, The Sixteenth Century Journal , vol. XXVI, No. 1 (Spring 1995); and “Hite v. Fairfax and the Case of Terrapin Neck”, Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, vol. LXII (Dec. 1996).
The Hymans lived in Alexandria and raised shorthorn cattle at their farm in Shepherdstown, W.Va. They had no children. They are survived by their admiring nieces and nephews — Kenneth Hannan, Jr. and Ted Hannan of New York City, Vandy Hannan Walker of Bronxville, N.Y., William Hannan of San Francisco, Laura King Hannan Price of Dallas, Martha Watson Shaw of Boston, Ted Watson of Philadelphia, Susan Watson Perkinson of Akron, and Sandra Silberstein of Seattle.
Mrs. Hyman’s many interests included reading, researching, gardening, and raising happy dogs in the city and in the country.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, Sept. 29 at 11 a.m. in the chapel at Goodwin House West, 3440 South Jefferson St., Falls Church. There will be a reception immediately following the service. In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Jefferson County Historical Society, the Hannan Scholarship at the Albany Academy for Girls, Bryn Mawr College, or the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University.