THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604230132
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Virginia East, the Ocean View Senior Center's ``guiding star,'' died April 13 at 101 years of age.
``She is truly going to be missed,'' said Gail Burton, recreation specialist for the center. ``She was someone all the the seniors looked forward to seeing. Knowing she is not coming back is going to be hard on everybody.''
A Bayview resident, East had been a constant ``upbeat'' presence at the center since the early '80s, when she helped found a Friday morning craft group of senior women. An experienced craftswoman whose forte was beads and canvas cross-stitch, East became the group's teacher and unofficial leader.
``If they knew Virginia was coming, they'd all show up,'' Burton said. ``The group eventually got very close-knit. They held luncheons, went on trips and celebrated birthdays together. It became a social club for them.''
Inspired by East, the women also took on a number of community projects. For the last five years, the group made afghans to donate to area nursing homes. East made more than half of them herself.
In 1990, when the center established its Volunteer of the Year award, East was selected as the first recipient.
``She was a constant source of inspiration,'' Burton said. ``I found her remarkable.''
She was also a perfectionist. Her longtime friend, Dorothy Fischer, said: ``If you didn't do it right, she'd tell you to pull it out and do it again.''
But she also had a big heart, friends recalled. Shortly before her death, East sent Fischer, who recently had moved into a nursing home, many of her craft patterns.
``She told me to show the women here how she did things,'' Fischer said. ``She was real generous like that.''
``To know her was to love her,'' added another friend and craft group member, Ann Meikle. ``She was really something special. You never heard her complain, and she liked to talk to everybody. She just had a terrific attitude about life.''
Last fall, while exhibiting her work at the center's annual Craft for All Seasons show, East admitted her fingers weren't as nimble as they once had been and her eyesight was poor. Still, she continued to churn out handmade yarn-covered tissue boxes, beaded jewelry, Christmas ornaments and needlepoint crosses by the dozens.
``It's something I like to do to pass the time,'' she said.
East never had been someone who could sit idly by, watching life happen around her.
``You have to live right,'' she said in November. ``Don't drink and don't smoke . . . and stay busy. I guess that's my secret.
``I just take it day-by-day. It's a mystery to me why I've lasted so long. I never dreamed I'd live to be more than 100. But I did. I just keep living.''
Even though she used a walker to help her get around during the last few years, East continued riding the bus from her Ocean View home to attend weekly craft group meetings through last fall. But in December, ``The winter took its toll, and her health began to decline,'' Burton said.
After she was hospitalized several times, family members were forced to move East out of her home, where she had lived on her own, and place her into Norfolk nursing home. That's where she was when she died.
East is survived by a daughter, a son, 12 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by BILL TIERNAN
Virginia East helped found a craft group at the Ocean View Senior
Center.
by CNB