Many who knew her describe her as brilliant, generous, loyal to her friends and family, and if she had a flaw, "too indulgent."

She kept a team of lawyers busy for decades with her many family ventures and entrepreneurial activities.

"She was involved in more damn things that you could shake a stick at," said her longtime attorney and friend, Bill Hanes, now the county's Commissioner of Accounts. "It was challenging, rewarding and always fun.

"She was a woman who would never sit down to tea or bridge with the ladies," he said. "She was in there mixing it up with the men and women in business. And she was very good at it."

Mrs. Carr was born Sept. 2, 1910, in Mountain Iron, Minn., to the late Oscar Lukkarila and Mary Pernu Lukkarila, who came over from Finland. She epitomized her family's strong work ethic.

"She became a lawyer when women didn't become lawyers," said Marc Albert, her attorney since 1981. Mrs. Carr and a classmate were the first women to graduate from the University of Minnesota's School of Law.

She married Lester Hayden Carr, an engineer and inventor, in 1932. They moved to the Washington, D.C., area during World War II, and in 1950 purchased the historic Fort Evans Farm in Leesburg. The property, which covered more than 3,000 acres in the northeast quadrant of Leesburg, became their lifelong home and the headquarters of their company, Developmental Engineering Corp. -- known as DECO.

"DECO employed a helluva lot of people here," Mr. Hanes said. The company had contracts with the Department of Defense, he said, for development of communications technologies. "They were on the leading edge of the industry. [Mr. Carr] met with presidents and Gen. George Marshall - I'm sure they were friends."

The Carrs sold DECO to Westinghouse Electric Corp. for "a ton of money," Mr. Hanes said, and shortly after, in 1965, Mr. Carr died.

Mrs. Carr began to invest in Leesburg where she saw needs. She bought and renovated a rundown building for her North American Bank and Trust, which she eventually sold to Nations Bank.

She was a visionary, some said, always ahead of her time. In the mid-1970s, she and her business partner and friend Mark Montgomery teamed up with a Swiss count and a U.S. ambassador to form International Pavilion, which she envisioned as an international center, "a little U.N. right here in Leesburg," Mr. Hanes said.

IPCO developed the Carrvale subdivision, which Mrs. Carr saw as meeting a need for moderately priced houses.

Later she sold more land, in the area of Home Depot, for commercial development.

"She sold [her property] to people who would show her their hand, who would build something she could have pride in," Mr. Hanes said.

Mrs. Carr started her own newspaper when she didn't like what local papers wrote about her. In 1974 she sold her weekly Metro Virginia News in Leesburg, as well as the long-established Fauquier Democrat, to Arthur Arundel, publisher of the Times-Mirror.

"The Metro Virginia News, written in Mrs. Carr's Leesburg Bank Building ... was the first serious competition for the Times-Mirror since 1956," wrote the late Frances H. Reid in her book, "Inside Loudoun: The Way It Was."

"She was a powder keg who was about 4 feet [11 inches] tall," Mr. Albert said. "You didn't want to get in her way.

"She was tenacious, had a steel-trap mind, loved her family and friends, and was very loyal to them," he said. "She was like David going after Goliath.

Mrs. Carr championed causes for the cultural benefit of Loudoun. She founded and donated to the Loudoun Museum. She restored several historic buildings in Leesburg. After she was appointed to the Virginia Community College Board, she was instrumental in getting the Sterling campus funded and built.

Still, at the end of the day, "she had all the money in the world, but her family came first," Mr. Albert said. He recalled the time her 2-year-old granddaughter was injured in a farm accident. "Mrs. Carr just lived at the hospital. She wouldn't go home." The little girl eventually died.

Mrs. Carr never retired, remaining active until the end. "She was sharp as a tack," said her friend, attorney Rick Saunders. "She understood everything, even into her 90s. I was always in awe of her."

Services are Friday at 1 p.m. at Colonial Funeral Home in Leesburg. Friends may call beginning at 11 a.m. Burial will follow in the Carr Mausoleum at Fort Evans Farm.

Two of Mrs. Carr's children preceded her in death. Her daughter Alice "Diane" Carr died in an automobile accident in the late 1960s. Mrs. Carr adopted Diane's son, Shawn H. Carr, and raised him.

Her son, Richard H. Carr, died in 2003.

Survivors also include two daughters, Cynthia L. Carr Shrump Marsh, and Roberta J. Carr Ochoa; five other grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and three nieces and nephews.