Virginia Ruth Carmichael Hallmark
Virginia Ruth Carmichael Hallmark, daughter of John Reid Carmichael and Verdie Rasor Carmichael, was born near Thompsonville, Gonzales County Texas. She attended early years at the Thompsonville schools until they were consolidated into the Waelder school district. She often reminisced about picking peaches, watermelons, and pecans as she grew up on her family farm. She was valedictorian of her high school class in 1949. After several years at San Antonio College, she went to work for the civil service. She worked with the the Army Nurse Corps at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. She joined the Travis Park United Methodist Church in 1951 in San Antonio when she chose to be baptized. She and Bill were married at this church in 1955 after Bill courted her with gifts and letters from Japan during the Korean War. She changed her middle name to Carmichael in pride of her family name. They moved to Austin where she worked for the department of the Army, 8th Corps, as a records management analyst from 1955 to 1961.
Virginia had her son “Billy” in 1961 when she devoted her time and talents to her family and church. She loved singing with the choir as a first soprano at Memorial Methodist church in Austin, Texas. She taught third grade Sunday school for years and served on the board of the church preschool. She enjoyed being the Circle chairwoman of the United Methodist Women. She was the organizer of several groups for the church including the book review and needlework and quilting groups. She frequently said that her idea of heaven would be a United Methodist Women’s dinner with endless tables of home cooked casseroles and cakes with all of her friends and family. Virginia loved cooking, especially dinner with one meat, two vegetables, iced tea, and cake, cookies or bread. She used to say that her homemade bread was as good as cake and indeed it was. She sewed clothes for her daughter, her daughter’s dolls, and herself, sometimes all matching in velvet for Christmas.
Virginia had many interests starting with American and Texas history, genealogy, bridge, music, cooking, quilting, traveling, and reading. She was a proud member of the Republican party. Her guilty pleasure was watching “As the World Turns” every weekday. She would tell anyone that the highlight of her life was when her daughter took her and Bill to England where she stood in John Wesley’s pulpit in England and stood on the Isle of Mull in Scotland where her ancestors lived. After returning with her husband to Gonzales as their home county near her favorite brother Hugh Carmichael, she volunteered at the library at the First United Methodist Church of Gonzales and enjoyed playing bridge and dominoes. After Bill’s passing in 2017, Virginia went to live with her daughter and enjoyed singing hymns at the First Methodist Church in Giddings for some years. She liked to sit outside on her daughter’s back porch to remember her life on “the farm.” She enjoyed the simple pleasures of life on the back porch such as watching the breeze in trees and looking for birds and squirrels with the family dogs on her lap and the cats zipping around the yard. Her blue eyes twinkled when she sang along with Elvis. Every morning before her daughter went to work, she often provided some sage advice: “Have a good day and have fun.”
She has joined her son Billy, husband Bill, and her brothers and sisters in heaven. No doubt, she is singing soprano at the top of her lungs and celebrating with her family and friends at the heavenly buffet of all the Methodist casseroles and cakes with God smiling at the head of the table.
Funeral services will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, May 25, 2024 at Seydler-Hill Funeral Home with Deacon Linda Duke officiating. Interment will follow at the Thompsonville Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The First Methodist Church Scholarship Fund at 279 Monroe St., Giddings, TX 78942
Friends may sign the guestbook and leave condolences by visiting www.seydlerhillfuneralhome.com
Arrangements are under the care and direction of Seydler-Hill Funeral Home, 906 St. Paul St., Gonzales, TX.
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