October 14, 1917 ~ August 16, 2011 Lita Alexander Lunsford recently died after a long illness at the age of 93. For the last 16 years, Mrs. Lunsford was a resident of The Park Oak Grove where, despite progressive disabilities, she continued to be active in many of her life long interests, including birding, gardening, reading, and flower arranging.
Mrs. Lunsford was the daughter of Dr. Lawrence Dade Alexander and Lita Berry Alexander. She was born in New York City and raised in Darien, Conn. Lita attended various boarding schools in the Northeast before enrolling at Hollins College, from which she graduated in 1939. After graduation, she was active in diving, swimming, and horseback riding, which she taught at Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia, Pa., before marrying Kirk Lunsford Jr. in 1940.
During the 1940s and 1950s Lita was active in radio broadcasting and read books for the blind and on the air for radio listeners. She was an intermittent soloist in the choir at the Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke. She was a member of The Junior League, The Roanoke Assembly, and the Mill Mountain Garden Club. The Lunsfords moved from Roanoke to Petersburg, Va., in 1958. Mrs. Lunsford then received graduate credits at the University of Virginia and last worked for the City of Petersburg school system as a Home-School Coordinator.
After her husbands retirement she and Kirk moved to Nimrod Hall in Bath County, Va., where they had long maintained a second home. While there, Mrs. Lunsford was a member of The Warm Springs Garden Club, and sang in the choir of Windy Cove Presbyterian Church and worked in the Food Pantry there.
They moved back to Roanoke in 1992. Her passions were a life long love of opera and rose gardening, and she was a skilled arranger of unique fresh and dried flower arrangements.
Mrs. Lunsford is survived by four sons, Kirk Lunsford III, of Roanoke, Read A. Lunsford, of Nimrod Hall and Roanoke, Vaughan B. Lunsford, of Newport News, and L. Dade Lunsford, of Pittsburgh; two daughters-in-law, Bruce and Julie Lunsford; four grandchildren, Alex, Pepper, Stephanie, and Andrew; and five great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Lunsford maintained her elegance and poise and personal strength of character throughout her long life despite many personal adversities. She was devoted to her immediate family as well as to the Lunsford clan of Roanoke, all of whom embraced her warmly after the early death of her father in 1939. She was the last survivor of her husbands five siblings and their spouses, to whom she was quite close. Kirk Lunsford Jr. predeceased her dying on May 25, 1999.
A private family graveside service will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 27, 2011, at Fairview Cemetery. Her family suggests that any memorial gifts be sent to Hollins University or The Second Fund at Second Presbyterian Church or The Rescue Mission of Roanoke. Arrangements by Oakey's Roanoke Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Published in Roanoke Times from August 24 to August 25, 2011
Mrs. Lunsford was the daughter of Dr. Lawrence Dade Alexander and Lita Berry Alexander. She was born in New York City and raised in Darien, Conn. Lita attended various boarding schools in the Northeast before enrolling at Hollins College, from which she graduated in 1939. After graduation, she was active in diving, swimming, and horseback riding, which she taught at Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia, Pa., before marrying Kirk Lunsford Jr. in 1940.
During the 1940s and 1950s Lita was active in radio broadcasting and read books for the blind and on the air for radio listeners. She was an intermittent soloist in the choir at the Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke. She was a member of The Junior League, The Roanoke Assembly, and the Mill Mountain Garden Club. The Lunsfords moved from Roanoke to Petersburg, Va., in 1958. Mrs. Lunsford then received graduate credits at the University of Virginia and last worked for the City of Petersburg school system as a Home-School Coordinator.
After her husbands retirement she and Kirk moved to Nimrod Hall in Bath County, Va., where they had long maintained a second home. While there, Mrs. Lunsford was a member of The Warm Springs Garden Club, and sang in the choir of Windy Cove Presbyterian Church and worked in the Food Pantry there.
They moved back to Roanoke in 1992. Her passions were a life long love of opera and rose gardening, and she was a skilled arranger of unique fresh and dried flower arrangements.
Mrs. Lunsford is survived by four sons, Kirk Lunsford III, of Roanoke, Read A. Lunsford, of Nimrod Hall and Roanoke, Vaughan B. Lunsford, of Newport News, and L. Dade Lunsford, of Pittsburgh; two daughters-in-law, Bruce and Julie Lunsford; four grandchildren, Alex, Pepper, Stephanie, and Andrew; and five great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Lunsford maintained her elegance and poise and personal strength of character throughout her long life despite many personal adversities. She was devoted to her immediate family as well as to the Lunsford clan of Roanoke, all of whom embraced her warmly after the early death of her father in 1939. She was the last survivor of her husbands five siblings and their spouses, to whom she was quite close. Kirk Lunsford Jr. predeceased her dying on May 25, 1999.
A private family graveside service will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 27, 2011, at Fairview Cemetery. Her family suggests that any memorial gifts be sent to Hollins University or The Second Fund at Second Presbyterian Church or The Rescue Mission of Roanoke. Arrangements by Oakey's Roanoke Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Published in Roanoke Times from August 24 to August 25, 2011
October 14, 1917 ~ August 16, 2011 Lita Alexander Lunsford recently died after a long illness at the age of 93. For the last 16 years, Mrs. Lunsford was a resident of The Park Oak Grove where, despite progressive disabilities, she continued to be active in many of her life long interests, including birding, gardening, reading, and flower arranging.
Mrs. Lunsford was the daughter of Dr. Lawrence Dade Alexander and Lita Berry Alexander. She was born in New York City and raised in Darien, Conn. Lita attended various boarding schools in the Northeast before enrolling at Hollins College, from which she graduated in 1939. After graduation, she was active in diving, swimming, and horseback riding, which she taught at Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia, Pa., before marrying Kirk Lunsford Jr. in 1940.
During the 1940s and 1950s Lita was active in radio broadcasting and read books for the blind and on the air for radio listeners. She was an intermittent soloist in the choir at the Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke. She was a member of The Junior League, The Roanoke Assembly, and the Mill Mountain Garden Club. The Lunsfords moved from Roanoke to Petersburg, Va., in 1958. Mrs. Lunsford then received graduate credits at the University of Virginia and last worked for the City of Petersburg school system as a Home-School Coordinator.
After her husbands retirement she and Kirk moved to Nimrod Hall in Bath County, Va., where they had long maintained a second home. While there, Mrs. Lunsford was a member of The Warm Springs Garden Club, and sang in the choir of Windy Cove Presbyterian Church and worked in the Food Pantry there.
They moved back to Roanoke in 1992. Her passions were a life long love of opera and rose gardening, and she was a skilled arranger of unique fresh and dried flower arrangements.
Mrs. Lunsford is survived by four sons, Kirk Lunsford III, of Roanoke, Read A. Lunsford, of Nimrod Hall and Roanoke, Vaughan B. Lunsford, of Newport News, and L. Dade Lunsford, of Pittsburgh; two daughters-in-law, Bruce and Julie Lunsford; four grandchildren, Alex, Pepper, Stephanie, and Andrew; and five great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Lunsford maintained her elegance and poise and personal strength of character throughout her long life despite many personal adversities. She was devoted to her immediate family as well as to the Lunsford clan of Roanoke, all of whom embraced her warmly after the early death of her father in 1939. She was the last survivor of her husbands five siblings and their spouses, to whom she was quite close. Kirk Lunsford Jr. predeceased her dying on May 25, 1999.
A private family graveside service will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 27, 2011, at Fairview Cemetery. Her family suggests that any memorial gifts be sent to Hollins University or The Second Fund at Second Presbyterian Church or The Rescue Mission of Roanoke. Arrangements by Oakey's Roanoke Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Published in Roanoke Times from August 24 to August 25, 2011
Mrs. Lunsford was the daughter of Dr. Lawrence Dade Alexander and Lita Berry Alexander. She was born in New York City and raised in Darien, Conn. Lita attended various boarding schools in the Northeast before enrolling at Hollins College, from which she graduated in 1939. After graduation, she was active in diving, swimming, and horseback riding, which she taught at Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia, Pa., before marrying Kirk Lunsford Jr. in 1940.
During the 1940s and 1950s Lita was active in radio broadcasting and read books for the blind and on the air for radio listeners. She was an intermittent soloist in the choir at the Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke. She was a member of The Junior League, The Roanoke Assembly, and the Mill Mountain Garden Club. The Lunsfords moved from Roanoke to Petersburg, Va., in 1958. Mrs. Lunsford then received graduate credits at the University of Virginia and last worked for the City of Petersburg school system as a Home-School Coordinator.
After her husbands retirement she and Kirk moved to Nimrod Hall in Bath County, Va., where they had long maintained a second home. While there, Mrs. Lunsford was a member of The Warm Springs Garden Club, and sang in the choir of Windy Cove Presbyterian Church and worked in the Food Pantry there.
They moved back to Roanoke in 1992. Her passions were a life long love of opera and rose gardening, and she was a skilled arranger of unique fresh and dried flower arrangements.
Mrs. Lunsford is survived by four sons, Kirk Lunsford III, of Roanoke, Read A. Lunsford, of Nimrod Hall and Roanoke, Vaughan B. Lunsford, of Newport News, and L. Dade Lunsford, of Pittsburgh; two daughters-in-law, Bruce and Julie Lunsford; four grandchildren, Alex, Pepper, Stephanie, and Andrew; and five great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Lunsford maintained her elegance and poise and personal strength of character throughout her long life despite many personal adversities. She was devoted to her immediate family as well as to the Lunsford clan of Roanoke, all of whom embraced her warmly after the early death of her father in 1939. She was the last survivor of her husbands five siblings and their spouses, to whom she was quite close. Kirk Lunsford Jr. predeceased her dying on May 25, 1999.
A private family graveside service will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 27, 2011, at Fairview Cemetery. Her family suggests that any memorial gifts be sent to Hollins University or The Second Fund at Second Presbyterian Church or The Rescue Mission of Roanoke. Arrangements by Oakey's Roanoke Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Published in Roanoke Times from August 24 to August 25, 2011
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