Velma Ruth Braswell Peoples

Born to Katie Bell Knight and Frank Braswell, Jr on September 21, 1933 in Pitt County, North Carolina, Velma was the last to join the posse of siblings Crawford, Kay, Cleo, and Jack (born Drew Sharrod).

The family moved to Virginia, where Velma would graduate from St. Joseph High School in June of 1951, and Valis Beauty College five years later.

In the years that followed, Velma met and married Fredrick Douglass Peoples, Jr whose military career would take the couple around the globe as their family expanded to include Patricia, Terry, Carl, and Kriste.

The family settled in Virginia Beach in the seventies where Velma remained until moving to Maryland in 2006. While in Virginia she was a longtime member of Calvary Revival Church under the pastoral care of Bishop B. Courtney McBath and Living Waters Worship Center under pastoral care of Bishops James and Varle Rollins.

When she wasn’t working as a teacher’s aide in the Virginia Beach Public School system, she cherished time spent with her church family, and was a gifted cosmetologist and seamstress who styled hair and made clothes for her many clients and family.

Velma joins her siblings in glory and leaves her love behind in the hearts of her four children, five grandchildren, three great grands, and a host of nieces, nephews, and friends.