Ford, Lyllian Virginia Rosen
Lyllian Virginia Rosen Ford, Blacksburg, Va., formerly of Columbia, Tenn., passed away July 17, 2008.
She was born in Augusta County, Va. on January 29, 1913, the eldest daughter of the late George Moore Rosen and Edna Lenora Lotts Rosen. She was predeceased by her brothers, Harry, Lyle, and Melvin Rosen, by a sister, George Anna Fravel, by her husband, Rev. Wilborn McCree Ford, D.D. and her eldest daughter, Sara Lee Ford Brown. She was a devoted companion and help to her husband as organist and teacher in his Presbyterian Ministry (in both the A.R.P. and Presbyterian U.S. churches) in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
She loved travel throughout the U.S., the British Isles and Europe. She was an avid gardener. She especially enjoyed her literary club and Bible study classes (having read the entire Bible, with commentaries, after her husband’s death.) During her life, she worked as a teacher in kindergarten, in a library, in the social services department for the State of Tennessee, and as a docent at the ancestral home of President James K. Polk. She loved to play baseball and basketball as a youth and for many years, to watch the Atlanta Braves on TV.
She is survived by two sisters, Margaret Earhart of Spottswood, Va., Emma Jane Lucas from Salem, Va.; three daughters, Anne Catherine Ford Robinson, of Blacksburg, Va., Mary Lyllian Ford Herron, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., and Martha Jane Ford Taylor, of Blacksburg, Va.; eight grandchildren, William David Brown, Sara Lynn Brown Koto, Stephen McCree Brown, Warren Liddell Herron, III, Elizabeth Lynne Herron Ballew, Jerald Francis Robinson, Jr., Charles Franklin Taylor, and Andrew Brian Taylor; 11 great-grandchildren, Joshua Rex Brown, Anna Laurie Brown, Kati Elizabeth Koto, Jonathan David Koto, William Edward Brown, Abagail Lea Brown, Nigel Dalton Robinson, Roxanne Tara Robinson, Brittani Morgan Corbisiero, Hannah Marie Ballew, and Eli Patrick Taylor.
Lyllian Rosen Ford had almost a century of experience in living and had a positive impact on so many everywhere she lived. She loved God, self and neighbor. At the Warm Hearth Village in Blacksburg, she served as a role model to all generations, for growing older with a sense of God’s grace.
Memorial services will be at the McCoy Funeral Home Chapel in Blacksburg on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 2 p.m. with the Rev. Reggie Tuck, the Rev. David Vance and the Rev. Linda Dickerson officiating. A later graveside service will be at the Zion Presbyterian Church yard, Columbia, Tennessee. Memorial gifts should be given to the church of your choice. Arrangements by McCoy Funeral Home, 150 Country Club Drive, SW, Blacksburg.