Vashti Peecksen Elliott

She was born on April 2, 1935, in Charleston, SC, the oldest child of Henry Reelf and Vashti Douglas Peecksen. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, J. Morris Elliott, and her only sister, Alicia Peecksen Arrendale. She was followed in death by her daughter, Elizabeth Elliott, who passed away on January 31, 2022.

Her early years were spent in Decatur, Georgia, until her family moved to northern Virginia. After graduating from high school in Arlington, she attended Radford College. Through mutual friends, she met a Virginia Tech student, also from Arlington, who became her future husband. Upon his graduation from Virginia Tech, they were married and had 65 years together until his death in 2019.

She leaves a son, Bradley Elliott, and wife, Judith of Smith Mountain Lake; granddaughter, Emily Billings, and husband, Derek; great granddaughter, Daisy Billings of Dayville, Conn.; niece, Jenijoy Fisher, and husband, chaplain Linn Fisher; and grandnewphew, James Fisher of Southern Pines, NC.

Because her husband loved a challenge, she found herself following him as he continually looked for and accepted jobs more interesting and challenging than the one he held. She became very good at fitting their furniture into houses other people had designed and built. Over the years, she gave her time to her churches, Scouting, tax counseling for the elderly for 21 years, working with the blind, returning for two years to college in her 50s to get optical certification, as well as other civic programs.

It was often said, “if you marry a Virginia Gentleman, you will find yourself eventually returning to Virginia.” So, inevitably, the last of their 19 moves to eight different states would be a return to Virginia. That move to Waynesboro in 1998 was only a few miles from where her husband’s great grandparents owned the mill at Woods Mill, Va.

A memorial service will be held for Mrs. Elliott and her daughter, Elizabeth, at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 2, 2022 at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, 500 South Wayne Ave., Waynesboro, with Pastor Paul Pingel officiating. The family will receive friends and guests for a luncheon following the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests those desiring to make memorial contributions do so to the Hospice of the Shenandoah, P.O. Box 1000, Fishersville, VA 22939, or to the church or charity of their choice.