Lisa Arquette Bradford, mother of three and a parishioner of Corpus Christi Church in Aldie, died Sept. 22 after being shot, allegedly by her husband. She was 53.
In the days following Lisa’s death, friends and colleagues paid tribute to her both online and in person. Some 100 friends, family and colleagues held a vigil Sept. 27 at Hal and Berni Hanson Regional Park Nature Center in Brambleton, honoring Lisa’s life and her joyful impact on the Loudoun County community.
Lisa’s faith “was an integral part” of her life, and she fostered a deep relationship with Our Lord and Mary, according to her mother, Mary Arquette. “I was just looking at her office today, and I picked up a rosary,” she said. As the family continues to mourn, Mary said she still feels close to Lisa, even as she prays for her daughter. “I don’t think heaven is a million miles above us. I think heaven is all around us,” she said. “I just can’t believe she’s gone, and I want her back.”
Lisa was born Oct. 28, 1972, to Robert and Mary Arquette in Toledo, Ohio. Her mother said when the doctors announced her gender, a lyric from the song “I Can See Clearly Now,” playing in the background caught her attention: “It’s going to be a bright, sunshiny day.”
“That couldn’t have been more true, the way she brightened our lives, as she brightened everybody’s lives,” Mary said.
The middle of three children, Lisa grew up in Douglassville, Pa., and Sylvania, Ohio. She attended St. Joseph Parish School in Sylvania and graduated from Central Catholic High School in Toledo in 1991.
She attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, majoring in business and marketing and graduating in 1995. She worked as a marketing manager for the Ford Motor Company, 1995-2006, and became a licensed realtor for Long and Foster Real Estate in 2008. Since 2021, she had worked as a realtor for the real estate company Compass.
A parishioner of St. Veronica Church in Chantilly and later of Corpus Christi, Lisa was a devoted mother to her three children, Drew, 21, Maddie, 18, and Kaitlyn, 17. “They loved to watch movies together,” Mary said. She described her daughter as an involved and enthusiastic school parent at St. Veronica School and St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly. “She was always involved in school and volunteering and working at their plays and at their musicals,” Mary said. At her kids’ performances, “you could always tell where Lisa was because we always heard her cheering.”
In addition to her three children and her parents, Lisa is survived by her siblings Andrew, Peter and Nancy Arquette; and nieces and nephews, Kyle (Kathryn), Jacob, Corrine, Charlie, Sam, and Jack Arquette
Visitation will be Oct. 5, 4-8 p.m. at Corpus Christi Church in Aldie. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at Corpus Christi Oct. 6 at noon. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to support her three children at gofund.me/3185134af.
To donate
Go to gofund.me/3185134af.
