Norfolk City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Shields, Mary Frances Ridley May 24, 1934
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Suzy Ward Fleming wardflemin@aol.com January 9, 2016, 10:45 am

The Virginian Pilot and Norfolk Landmark May 25, 1934


Mrs. Mary Shields Succumbs on Eve of 103d Birthday
Well-Known Norfolk Women Fails To Rally After Fracture of Hip in Fall
A fracture of the hip sustained in a fall Thursday afternoon at her home at 716
Boissevain
Boissevain Avenue caused the death early yesterday of Mrs. Mary Frances Shields, b
Shields, believed to have been the oldest Norfolk resident. Mrs. Fields was 102
years old 
years old and would have celebrated her 103d birthday Tuesday May 29.
Beloved by all who knew here, a women with a serene outlook and faith in goodness 
goodness of things which had not been shattered by the many contacts with death and
adver
and adversity attending her years. Mrs. Shields is mourned in her passing by
hundreds 
hundreds of friends and acquaintances. 
The Rev. Sparks W. Melton, D.D., pastor of Freemason Street Baptist Church, of which
Mr
which Mrs. Shields was the sole surviving charter member and of which her father w
father was one of the founders, will conduct the funeral services at the residenc
residence tomorrow morning at 11 o’clock, assisted by the Rev. E. Ruffin Jones,
rector o
rector of St. Andrews Episcopal Church. Burial will be in Elmwood Cemetery.
Mrs. Fields is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Mary E. Shields Newton, of Norfolk
Norfolk; four grandchildren, William S. Newton and Mrs. L.J. Taylor, of Norfolk
Norfolk; John Ridley Shields, of Washington, and Miss Frances Shields, of Frances
Frances, and seven great-grandchildren.
The accident which resulted fatally occurred while Mrs. Shields was sitting in her
wh
her wheel chair near a window. A gust of wind tipped over a vase on the window
windowsill. In an effort to catch the vase before it fell, Mrs. Shields leaned over
t
over too far and lost her balance, turning the chair over and suffering a heavy
fall. 
fall. Her family physician ascertained that she had sustained a fracture of the
right 
right hip. Because of her advanced age and the shock of the fall, Mrs. Shields
failed
failed to rally, and was in unconscious condition Wednesday night that gave way to
her
to her death yesterday morning at 2:45 o’clock.
A native of Norfolk where she was born May 29, 1831, Mrs. Shields was born Mary
Franc
Frances Ridley, eldest daughter of the late John and Mrs. Mary Ann Gardner Ridle
Ridley. Her girlhood was spent in Norfolk and her education was received at Miss 
Miss Hackley’s School, located at what is now the intersection of Granby Street and
C
and College Place. Not long after leaving school, Mrs. Ridley became the wife of Jo
of John E. Shields, of Washington and brother of the Capt. Hamilton Shields, who m
who made his name during the Mexican War, and went to Washington to live. After a
com
a comparatively short residence in Washington, Mrs. Shields returned with her husba
husband to her native city, and remained here for the rest of her life.
Mr. Ridley, her father, was an official of the growing City of Norfolk, serving at
o
at one time as city surveyor, an office corresponding to the present one of city
city engineer. He was also treasurer of the city at one time.
Mrs. Shields was a grown women during the Civil War, and prior to that had sur
survived the yellow fever epidemic which harassed Norfolk in 1855. During the Spa
Spanish-American War she lost a son Paymaster Leroy Hamilton Shields.
The following is part of a tribute paid to Mrs. Shields on the occasion of her 10
100th birthday by Dr. Lawrence T. Royster, of the University of Virginia, her ne
nephew:
“She had witnessed many changes of custom and dress as well as public thought a
and opinion”, wrote Dr. Royster. “She has seen this country pass through crises b
brought by war and pestilence and has always been a keen observer of such p
phenomena. Of a naturally happy and generous disposition she loved to be with p
people, especially the young, and adapted herself to the prevailing customs, w
while adhering to her ideals; thus she has grown old gracefully without being c
critical or censorious of others, nor would she ever permit harsh criticism to b
be passed on others in her presence.”


Additional Comments:
Elmwood

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