Virginia Craig Downs

Virginia Craig Downs was born on May 18, 1931, in Morganton, NC. She was the daughter of Clarence Hamilton Craig and Virginia Taylor Craig of Lenoir, NC, and the granddaughter of Albert Jackson Taylor and Viola Hunter Taylor of Morganton, NC, and Robert Edward Craig and Alice Angley Craig of Lenoir.

She attended Lenoir High School where she became a leader of the award-winning Marching Band. She studied English Language and literature at the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and at The Graduate School of Duke University. She married fellow graduate student Murray Scott Downs in 1954 and, during his military service, she taught English at Walter Williams High School in Burlington, NC, and at Havre de Grace High School in Maryland. Murray and Virginia were married for over 63 years.

She joined the English faculty at North Carolina State University in 1965 and taught there twenty-eight years. During this time, she also served as secretary of the Faculty Senate and chair of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers. Her activities on campus included service as president of the University Woman’s Club and in the Raleigh community including service as president of the United Methodist Women of Highland United Methodist Church. All her life she loved to read and was a member of several book clubs.

An ardent traveler, she and her husband Murray participated in frequent summer self-planned and self-driven trips with their three children to England, Scotland, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Belguim, Germany and Denmark. After retirement, she and Murray became avid explorers of ancestral sites in western North Carolina, Connecticut, and through visits to small villages and parish churches in England and Scotland.

Virginia and Murray moved to Glenaire, a Presbyterian retirement home in Cary, NC, in 2009. The Downs family wishes to express their appreciation for the compassionate care given to Virginia by the staff of Glenaire’s Health Center during the last two years of her long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Virginia is survived by her husband, Murray; their children, Alan Craig Downs and his wife, Judi Tutor Downs of Statesboro, GA, Suzanne Downs Grimes and her husband, Christopher Eugene Grimes of Fuquay-Varina, NC, and William Murray Downs and his wife, Kim Harwood Downs of Greenville, NC; and by her grandchildren, Jonathan Taylor Downs, Andrew Carson Downs and Kathryn Blair Downs of Statesboro, Brandon Murray Davis and Christopher Daniel Grimes of Fuquay-Varina, and Rachel Elizabeth Downs and Bradley Craig Downs of Greenville.

A memorial service will be held in the Glenaire Auditorium on Monday, March 5, 2018 at 10:00am.

In lieu of flowers, you may wish to send a memorial contribution to Highland United Methodist Church, 1901 Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC 27607, or the Presbyterian Homes Foundation, Resident Assistance Fund, 4000, Glenaire Circle, Cary, NC 27511. Arrangements by Brown-Wynne Funeral Home. Condolences may be made at BrownWynneCary.comGlenaire Circle, Cary, NC 27511.