In Loving Memory

Dolly Virginia Spencer was the ninth born child to Thomas Albion Spencer and Irene Davidson, natives of North Carolina as their parents before them. When Dolly was born my grandmother Irene Spencer told me that her young son Paul, almost two years of age, saw the newborn infant and said she looked just like a "dolly". Thus Dolly became her name. She was very petite when grown, and the name Dolly suited her.

Thomas Spencer was a lumber broker and they lived in North Carolina, and briefly Georgia through the years before settling in Hampton, Virginia in the late 1930s. Thomas would acquire woods (trees) and his sons would do the hard, back breaking physical work of preparing the lumber. Tom made arrangements with the broker to have the wood shipped up north to companies who used it for building offices and homes.

Dolly Virginia Spencer (1) married ___ Ross. They had no children and had a short marriage before divorcing.

Dolly was married to (2) Edward Bromley, December 6, 1941, Hampton, Virginia by Methodist Minister Jesse H. Hobbs. Edward was a plumber by trade. They had no children. Divorced February 17, 1948, Newport News, Virginia.

Virginia Ross Spencer (3) married Maywood Luster "Mack" McCoy on June 11, 1949, Pasquotank, North Carolina, Captain of a tugboat. Mack was witty and fun to be with, with a ruddy complexion and sandy hair from being in the sun continuously. After six and a half years they separated and made their decree final three years later. Dolly and Mack remained on good terms, and a few years later Mack remarried.

Dolly resided in Phoebus her final years. She was an excellent bookkeeper and able to care for herself well. She was left handed, and being a left handed niece of hers she shared with me her experience as a young girl. Being left handed was frowned upon when Dolly was growing up. The teachers hit her left hand with a ruler until she learned to write with her right hand. She became ambidextrous. However, she preferred writing with her left hand always.

Dolly became ill and died unexpectedly from a ruptured aorta aneurysm in 1962, only age 44.
Dolly was always extremely close to her mother, visited her often, and was laid to rest by her parents in Peninsula Memorial Park.