Nansemond County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Nurney, Daisy, 1948 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ DAISY DeLEON NURNEY MISS DAISY, VIRGINIAN PILOT REPORTER, DIES SUFFOLK BUREAU CHIEF SERVED FOR 35 YEARS SUFFOLK - Aug. 11, (AP) - Miss Daisy Nurney, for 35 years Virginian-Pilot bureau chief in Suffolk, died Wednesday at the home of a sister, Mrs. Claude S. Howell, in Wilmington, N.C. She had been ill for six months. Funeral services will be held Friday afternoon at 4 P.M. at the First Presbyterian Church. Burial will be in Cedar Hill Cemetery. Known in Suffolk and the surrounding Nansemond County area as "Miss Daisy" Miss Nurney had been inactive because of declining health since the first of the year. She had spent some time in Florida seeking improvement before she went to Wilmington to live with her sister. Rare indeed was the Suffolkian to whom Miss Nurney was not known during her news and advertising garnering tenure for the Virginian Pilot. She belonged to many civil, fraternal and social groups, and was active in the community’s religious life. Served on Prison Board She coined the name "Ruritan" for the national organization when it first came into being at Holland, Va., and she was the first woman member of the Virginia State Prison Board, now the Department of Welfare and Institutions. She served on the board from Feb. 23, 1923, to Feb. 6, 1928. Though Miss Nurney was born in Rocky Mount, N.C., her roots were deep in the Suffolk Southside. The town of Nurneyville is named for her family. She was the daughter of the late Joseph Henry Nurney and Mrs. Elizabeth Meredith Lassiter Nurney. Coming to Suffolk as a young woman, she first taught school in Nansemond County and then in the Suffolk city school system. When she assumed the newspaper post, she stepped into a pair of boots which had been imposingly filled by Percy Pruden, one of the legendary "country correspondents" of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Pruden, who never touched a finger to a typewriter, covered some of the biggest news stories that ever broke in this area, including a double lynching and several famous murder cases. Besides serving the old Norfolk Virginian and the Virginian-Pilot for one-half century, he covered the territory for a score or more of the nations’ largest newspaper. Exceeded Pruden Reputation It was a big job, but Miss Nurney was not only to live up to the Pruden reputation, but in time to exceed it. As the Suffolk area grew in importance, Miss Nurney grew with it as a newspaperwoman and as a citizen actively interested in all its affairs. She was a member of the Suffolk Presbyterian Church and took a leading part in the work of its woman’s auxiliary and various circles. She was also interested in the Sunday school. Her other connections included a charter membership in the Suffolk Magazine Club and honorary membership in the Literary Club. She belonged also to the Woman’s Club and the Business and Professional Woman’s Club. Survivors include, besides Mrs. Howell, two other sisters, Mrs. Jack Camp, of Ocala, Fla., and Mrs. Milby Lloyd, of Detroit. Daisy Deleon NURNEY, retired "Virginian-Pilot" Suffolk bureau chief, former teacher & Prison Board member, d. 11 Aug 1948, at sister's home, Wilmington, NC, interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery (Block E, Lot 33*), Suffolk, 13 Aug 1948, "The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch," Aug. 12, 1948 *Her parents are also buried there. Cedar Hill list, an extension of the Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/cemeteries/cedar_m.txt Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/obits/n650d1ob.txt