Born December 14, 1937, to Dr. John Cayce Pearce and Flora Virginia Pearce, Virginia Ruth Pearce spent her early years in Mercer, TN, where her father, a general practitioner and a leader in the Baptist church, joined forces with Dr. Roy Williams, minister of the Methodist church, to bring the community together. Later, Dr. Pearce and Dr. Paul Wylie established a medical clinic in Jackson, TN, where Virginia Ruth grew up. An avid sports fan, she was manager of the Jackson High School girls’ basketball team. She formed friendships that would last a lifetime. Whether following their team or devising adolescent parties or pranks, the group of girls grew up together and excelled together: Virginia Ruth (Pearce) Hudgens, Larry Gay (Lane-Maiden) Reagan, Theodora (Burdette) Shafer, Joan (Rosenblum) Weiss, and Geneele (Camp) Crenshaw.
Once when Virginia Ruth and a young friend attended a Baptist tent revival meeting, the minister intoned, “I can hear those chariots rolling even now,” just as a plane roared low over the meeting. The two young girls, hand-in-hand, ran down the aisle to give their lives to Jesus. Later Virginia Ruth told the minister she was sure he had arranged for that plane to fly over the service at just the right time.
For college, Virginia Ruth chose Union University in Jackson, TN, from which she graduated with a major in English and a minor in history. In college, she was a proud member of Chi Omega sorority. After graduation, she taught junior high English in Jackson for a year before going to graduate school at the University of Mississippi, from which she received the M.A. in English with a thesis on the poetry of Sara Teasdale. She then worked for four years as a chapter visitor for Chi Omega, traveling across the United States and establishing additional lifelong friendships.
When her father’s health declined, Virginia Ruth accepted a position teaching English at Memphis State University, where she would remain for the next thirty-four years, during which time she completed further graduate work at Ole Miss. She remained an avid sports fan, following SEC football and basketball passionately and teaching most of the football and basketball players at the University of Memphis. She received the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1982 and remained an exceptionally popular teacher throughout her career.
In 1976, Virginia Ruth married the love of her life, Erwin Watson Hudgens (Hudge). Together they traveled across the United States, celebrated their mutual love of Christmas with beautiful parties each year, and filled each other’s lives with joy and love. When Hudge died in 1998, Virginia Ruth continued her professional life, retiring in 1999.
Visitation will be Saturday, November 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., with the funeral service at 10:00 a.m. at Memphis Funeral Home on Poplar. Virginia Ruth will be buried Saturday afternoon in the family plot in Jackson, TN, with Hudge and her mother and father.
Survivors include the following: cousins Dr. Robert Waller and his children, Dr. Kathy Waller (Tim Navone), and Rob Waller (Katie Williams), and Elizabeth Waller (Steven Kovensky); Joni (Waller) Jaeger; Brucia Mory (John) and their children Beth (Matt) Yarbrough , Annie (Darrin) Yoder, and John David (Jessica) Mory; cousins, Karen (John) Eames; and Mary Charles Anderson; stepson Greg Hudgens (Emma) and children Will and Christopher (Brittney) Hudgens, and Sadie Little (Drew) Hudgens. Longtime friends Carolyn Anderson, Pat Collins, and Mary Ellen Pitts are also among her survivors.
