Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Downer, Virginia Marshall June 18, 1905
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Diane Renfrow dianel14@gmail.com May 1, 2015, 7:29 pm

“Some Prominent Virginia Families” Volumes I - II By Louise Pecquet du Bellet - 1907
Page 161
The following notice of the death of Miss Virginia Marshall Downer was sent as a 
special dispatch to a Norfolk paper:

Alexandria, VA, June 19,1905 - Fully a thousand sorrowing men and women thronged 
the pier of the Norfolk and Washington Steamboat 
Company here this evening as the remains of Miss Virginia Downer, of Norfolk, 
who was drowned Sunday night while canoeing with her cousin, John Wentworth 
Burke, Jr., were tenderly carried aboard the southbound steamer, Newport News, 
upon the shoulders of eight members of the Old Dominion Boat Club, who were 
friends and admirers of the beautiful young woman.

Page 163 

Miss Virginia Downer was one of last winter’s most popular debutantes in 
Norfolk. She was the eighteen-year-old daughter of Mrs. Eliza Downer and the 
late Dr. J. W. Downer, and leaves a brother, Lieutenant Walter Downer, U.S.A., 
and a younger sister. Her remains will arrive in Norfolk this morning on the 
steamer Newport News, accompanied by relatives from Alexandria, and the funeral 
will be held from the Downer residence, 234 Bute Street, at 6 o’clock this 
afternoon.

Miss Downer Laid To Rest

Funeral services over the remains of Miss Virginia Downer, which arrived here 
yesterday morning from Alexandria, were held yesterday evening at 6 o’clock, at 
the residence of her mother, Mrs. Eliza Downer, No. 234 Bute Street, in the 
presence of a large gathering of sorrowing friends and relatives, and were 
conducted by Rev. B. D. Tucker, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, assisted 
by the Rev. H. St. George Tucker. The interment was in Elmwood Cemetery.

During the services at the residence a quartet choir, composed of Miss Florence 
Raynor, Miss Lillian Kensett, J. Iredell Jenkins and Garnett Jordan, sang 
“Peace, Perfect Peace.” and “My God, My Father, While I Stray.” At the grave the 
same quartet rendered “Asleep in Jesus.”

The display of floral tributes was magnificent, the casket being entirely 
covered (concealed) by offerings of the choicest flowers, and in addition to 
these a wagon filled with designs was unloaded at the grave.

At the conclusion of the services, at the residence, the pall-bearers formed on 
either side of the house and accompanied, on foot, the remains to the cemetery.

The pall-bearers were: Philip Prescott, Frank Massie, Aaron Milhado, McIntosh 
Baylor, Kemp Savage, Guy E. Ewing, Lloyd Freeman, James M. Thomson, Julian 
Osborne, Norton Wood, U.S.A., Edward Stribling, Augustine Tucker, Ludwell 
Baldwin, John Stribling.

The casket was carried from the house to the hearse by seven of the pall-
bearers, and the other seven carried it from the hearse to the grave.

Additional Comments:
Elmwood Cemetery

S WALL A-L127A-S9-13

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