Barbara James Colvin's Obituary
Barbara James Colvin died on May 9, 2011. She was 80 years old.
Barbara Virginia James was born on December 31, 1930 to William Earl James and Barbara Evaline Weaver James in Oklahoma City, where her father, a World War I veteran, was a Ford automobile salesman for 28 years. She and her family moved to the James family home in Somerset, Kentucky in 1943. In 1946, they moved again to Culpeper, Virginia.
Her father was a farmer, and also an automobile salesman for the Hopkins-Willis Chevrolet dealership in Culpeper. Her mother was well known as a doll authority and as a grower of daylilies and her maternal grandfather, Claude Weaver, was a former Congressman and a federal judge.
She graduated from Culpeper High School with honors in 1948, and was selected for the DAR “Good Citizen” award for that year. She then attended Madison College (now James Madison University), where she was a member of the college orchestra and Alpha Sigma Tau sorority. She graduated in 1952 with a B.S. degree. She then worked for Virginia Electric Power Company (VEPCO) as a Home Economist, until her husband was called to active duty with the U.S. Air Force.
She began dating Thomas E. Colvin in high school in 1948, and on December 26, 1952 they were married in her church, the Culpeper Methodist Church, by her uncle, the Rev. Dr. D. Trigg James. They were married for 57 years.
He husband graduated from VMI in 1953 and was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force. The Korean War still ongoing, he was immediately called to active duty. He became a career fighter pilot. For the next 26 years they had assignments and lived in such places as Mississippi, Arizona, Alabama, Germany, California, Japan, Georgia, Tidewater, VA and Florida. Her husband retired from the Air Force as a Colonel in 1979. They moved to Rappahannock County, where her husband had roots, in 1981.
She was quite active in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the Rappahannock Garden Club until her health forced her to become an Associate Member of both.
She is survived by her three daughters, Janet Elizabeth Colvin of Chester, VA, Patricia Anne Colvin of Manhattan Beach, California and Lucy Carolyn Colvin of Chester, VA. She has ten grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Thomas E. Colvin, Colonel, USAF (ret), her parents, her older brother, William Weaver James Lt. Col. USAF (ret), and three infant sons.
A funeral service will be held on Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 2 p.m. at Found and Sons Funeral Chapel, 850 Sperryville Pike, Culpeper, VA with Rev. John Farrar officiating.
Burial will be private.
Her grandsons and son-in-law will be serving as pallbearers.
Found and Sons Funeral Chapel of Culpeper is handling the arrangements.
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