Fredona M. Gartlan, 85, a Northern Virginia community and mental health activist, died April 23 at her home in the Mason Neck section of Fairfax County. She had Alzheimer’s disease and died of an apparent heart attack.

Her daughter Joan Gartlan confirmed her death.

Mrs. Gartlan was the widow of Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., a Fairfax Democrat who served 28 years in the Virginia Senate. He died in 2008. They had been married for 58 years.

She was a former president of the Mount Vernon Mental Health Center Board. In 2010, the Fairfax Board of Supervisors named the mental health center in the Mount Vernon area the Joe and Fredona Gartlan Center for Community Mental Health.

Mrs. Gartlan was a member of the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute Advisory Council and chaired the Virginia Association of Community Services Boards. She also served on boards and councils of George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate and the Woodlawn Plantation.

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Fredona Manderfield was born in Massillon, Ohio. She moved to the Washington area in 1939 and graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in Alexandria in 1944. In 1948, she graduated from the old Dunbarton College in the District.

She had leadership roles in parent-teacher associations at her children’s schools and at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria.

Survivors include six children, Michael Gartlan of Fairfax, Anne Gartlan Steele of Yonkers, N.Y., Joan Gartlan of Washington, Peter Gartlan of Alexandria, Paul Gartlan of Coral Gables, Fla., and Joseph V. Gartlan III of Lorton; a brother, Grover J. “Bud” Manderfield of Alexandria; and seven grandchildren.

— Bart Barnes

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