Anneli Levy, 96, of Bethesda, Maryland, passed away on Friday, July 24, 2026. She grew up in Frankfurt, Germany and worked for the United States Air Force in the 1950s, which is when she married her American husband, Harry S Levy, who preceded her in death in 1990. The couple had two of their three children in Germany before moving to Bethesda in 1961, where they had their third child. During her 65-year residence in Montgomery County, she earned a bachelor’s degree in urban geography from the University of Maryland, summa cum laude/phi beta kappa, and a master’s degree from that university in the same field. Degrees in hand, she worked at the DC Metro (WMATA) and then for the Montgomery County library system for many years. During her library tenure, one of her favorite stations was Telephone Reference, answering the phone call of any caller, to provide a researched answer to their reference question, effectively Google before the internet.

Outside her professional life, for many years, on Saturday mornings she would read for the Washington Ear, a news radio service serving the visually impaired. Anneli was an avid world traveler, returning to her home country of Germany on many occasions, where for several seasons she indulged her passion for opera at the Ring festival in Bayreuth. She toured as well the Soviet Union, China, Australia, and the American west. Her most recent travels were a solo cross-country drive to Seattle and back in her early 80’s, and a solo trip to Panama in her mid 80’s. She was a decades-long member of a neighborhood book club. In 2019 she moved from the family’s Bethesda home of 58 years to Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg, later to Bartholomew House in Bethesda, and finally, Casey House Montgomery Hospice in Rockville.

She is survived by her three children, Claudia Levy of Rockville; Victor Levy of Williston Park, N.Y.; and Marion Levy of Bethesda. She is also survived by her five grandchildren, Marion Levy Qualls of Gaithersburg; Caleb and William Levy of Bethesda; Nathaniel and Clara Levy of New York, N.Y. and Williston Park, N.Y., respectively.

Family, friends and former colleagues are invited to gather and reminisce, on Tuesday, July 28, 10-11 AM, at Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care Inc., 170 Rollins Ave., Rockville. There will be a burial at Quantico National Cemetery at 1 PM the same day.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory would be appreciated in support of the Washington National Opera. 

Services entrusted to Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.