DeBusk, Virginia Northington

DeBusk, Virginia Northington 4Virginia Northington DeBusk, age 100, finished mothering her offspring on July 5, 2022. She welcomed 5 daughters: Carolyn, Mary, Priscilla, Nancy, and Rebecca, and 3 sons: Charles, Mark, and Thomas, along with 15 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren into her life and home. She re-joined her beloved husband, Charles Francis DeBusk, to whom she was married for 49 years, her father Lionel Hill Northington, mother Mary Virginia Fleming Northington, sister Saluda Northington Poe, brothers Rudolph Northington, and Lionel Frederick Northington. She is also survived by her brother, Thomas Burl Northington.

Born in Weldon, NC, Virginia attended the Blackstone College for Girls, and then trained to become a registered nurse at Johnston-Willis School of Nursing in Richmond, VA. With several classmates, she spent the summer of 1943 caring for polio victims with revolutionary Catholic Sister Kinney’s methods in Hickory, NC. She kept in close touch with many of them throughout her life, and among them is survived only by Jeter Bourne. Virginia’s career took her to work in Richmond, VA, Washington, D.C., and Williamsburg, VA, where she met Charlie on a blind date arranged by brother Rudy’s wife, Ruth.

Together in life, Charlie & Ginny showed many spiritual children how to share gracious gifts of hospitality and generous sacrifice. Charles designed and built Virginia a new house with his own hands on a dirt road in Blacksburg, where she lived until she passed. They turned it into a home where they raised their children, birthed a new church: College Baptist, and welcomed their growing family. They nursed the church through its infancy in their basement, and when it was time, Charles designed a new building to house it in 1965. Charles and Virginia passed their legacy of service on to many physical and spiritual offspring who serve in churches and communities around the world.

The family will receive visitors at McCoy Funeral Home in Blacksburg on Friday, July 8, 5:00-6:30 pm. A memorial service will be held Saturday, July 9, at 9:00 am at Harvest Baptist Church, 201 Lucas Drive, Blacksburg, VA, followed by interment at Monticello Memory Gardens in Charlottesville, VA.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Good Samaritan Hospice, or Harvest Baptist Church, a church which was founded in the DeBusk’s basement in the early ’60’s. Online condolences can be conveyed at mccoyfuneralhome.com.

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