Virginia Hodges

Virginia was born on a farm near Cifax on November 14, 1919, the first child of Orran Leftwich and Lula Mason Brown.

She was predeceased by her parents and her husband of 61 years, Ashby Russell Hodges Jr. who died March 10, 2003.

Virginia is survived by her two children, Beverly Hodges Lightner of Tulsa, Okla., and Ashby Ronald “Ronnie” Hodges (Lisa) of Goode, Va. Virginia also has a younger sister, Peggy Brown of Lynchburg.

Virginia was born on a rented farm near Cifax. Shortly after her birth, her parents purchased a farm near New London Academy so that she and her siblings could attend a school that offered a high school education and diploma. She grew up on the New London family farm helping in the fields and with household chores along with her siblings. She earned her high school diploma in 1937 and went on to attend Phillips Business College where she finished in 1939 and met her future husband, Ashby who she married in 1942. After Phillips she went on to work at various businesses in the Lynchburg Downtown starting at Adkins Furniture ending up at Eastern Electric where she was an accountant and Treasurer of the corporation till her retirement in 1985. She also worked at home keeping the books for Poole’s Machine Shop.

She attended Academy Presbyterian Church in New London, Va. as a child and transferred to Quaker Memorial Presbyterian Church in 1951 where she remained a member till the present. While there she helped with book keeping, ordering supplies for the church and creating Advent wreaths as well helping with most church functions. In their retirement time, she and her husband Ashby opened the church and made the morning coffee every Sunday for years, that may seem a small thing but it was an important thing to them to keep being a part and contributing to the church.

She was a member of the former Timbrook Woman’s Club where she was named Woman of the year in 1960. She had a great love of flower arranging, both fresh and dried which she practiced for many years. She worked the Election Polls for 15 years.

Virginia was a sweet, determined woman that was a certainly a role model for her family. She seldom if ever had bad words for others, she was always positive about life and her approach to it, traits that were passed on by example rather than rhetoric. She was a woman that was loved and respected by many, she could always get her point across but in a nice way that was never confrontational. She is certainly loved by her extended family and friends and seems to hold a special place in their hearts. She will be dearly missed by all.

We would like to give special thanks to all the good and kind people of Bentley Commons where she resided the last 5 years of her life. They certainly did everything they could to make her feel comfortable and loved the time she spent there and especially the last days of her life. Also the people of the Hospice group of Senior Independence were also a large help in this difficult process.

A visitation will be held at Tharp Funeral Home of Lynchburg on Sunday, February, 3, 2019, from 4 until 6 p.m. A memorial service will be held at Quaker Memorial Presbyterian on Monday, February 4, 2019, at 2 p.m.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to Quaker Memorial Presbyterian Church, 5810 Fort Avenue, Lynchburg, VA 24502. Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Lynchburg, is assisting the family.