Eva R Morales

With heavy hearts, Vince Morales and his family announce the sudden passing of Eva (known to most as Eve), beloved wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, and sister/mother-in-law.

Born and raised in Knoxville, TN to parents Jesse and Marie Vandergriff, Eve was close to her three brothers Claude, Robert (Bob), and Jack. After graduating from Central High School and enlisting in the U.S. Navy, she moved to San Diego, CA where she met Vince who was also a recent recruit. After marrying, the two forged a loving relationship grounded in family that lasted for 68 years.

Eve often said in a rather astonished voice, “We’ve lived an adventurous life!” which was reflective of all that she experienced as a dedicated Navy wife, world traveler and loving matriarch of a large, extended family. A talented homemaker, Eve skillfully juggled moving to over 13 states and countries while supporting Vince’s 32-year military career and creating a wonderful home for their four children. In 1966, her “adventurous life” was jumpstarted with Vince’s first foreign duty station to Turkey, then Scotland via an audacious two-week family trek across Europe and then onward to the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Adventures continued in the form of road trips across the U.S. from Alaska to Florida, additional foreign travel, and fishing, crabbing and boating in the Chesapeake Bay, Emerald Isle, and Vince’s birthplace of St. Croix, USVI.

In 1996, Eve and Vince moved to the Charlottesville area to be near family. Eve enjoyed reading, crossword puzzles, gardening, cooking, sewing, and cross-stitching, but most of all, she loved spending time with her large family by lending a listening ear, making hot chocolate and reading story books to her grandchildren, getting on the floor to play games with any youngster, creatively solving problems that would arise during fort-making and other childhood escapades, making Mac-and-Cheese whenever requested by a grandchild, heartily laughing at all of our crazy stories, and hosting holidays and family get-togethers up until the time of her passing.

Eve’s spirit is now with her oldest daughter Lisa and she will be sorely missed by her loving husband, Vicente Morales, daughters Janet Chilson (Roy) and Carol Wenger (Dean), son Steve Morales, grandchildren Jessica Reece (Tom), Mark Chilson, Julia and Christopher Wenger, Liza Gingerich (Josh), Maddie (Kyle Hunnings), Catherine, Caroline, Michael, Luke, Joshua, and Susannah Morales, great-grandchildren Lily and Tom Reece, Eliana, Seth, Eden, and Violet Gingerich, Colton and Carter Hunnings, brothers Robert and Jack Vandergriff, sisters-in-law Joan Pedersen, Eloise Burr, Colette Vandergriff, Juanita, Lucia, and Lucy Morales, former daughter-in-law Alicia Morales, and her loving extended Crucian family.

Funeral services will be held at Teague Funeral Home, 2260 Ivy Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 on May 5, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. followed by interment at Monticello Memory Gardens at 670 Thomas Jefferson Parkway, Charlottesville, VA 22902.