Mary Elizabeth Buntin

Elizabeth Buntin died on January 3, 2024 at the age of one hundred and seven. She had been a resident of Washington, Virginia for seventy-eight years, moving here in 1946 with her husband, William A. Buntin, a newly assigned state trooper.

Mrs. Buntin’s early years were spent in the Hudson River Valley of New York, her family moving to Edgartown, Massachusetts during her junior year at New York State Teachers College, from which she graduated in 1939, going on to receive an M.A. degree from Boston University, majoring in English with minors in French and History.

She taught English in high schools in Orange and North Dighton, MA, meeting her husband when he was stationed at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod. They were married in 1943. In preparation for overseas duty, his unit was transferred to Camp Gordon Johnston, and army installation in an undeveloped area of the Gulf Coast of Florida. She followed him there and they lived in an army barracks until apartments could be constructed. While at Gordon Johnston, Mrs. Buntin became certified as a trainer in the Army’s “On-the-Job-Instruction” program, a formula program for teaching officers how to help new, untrained civilians learn their jobs quickly. The program was met with a good deal of skepticism.

He husband’s final posting in the U.S. was at Camp Lee, Virginia. They moved to Petersburg, staying there until his unit was sent to Okinawa, then to Korea and Japan. Upon his discharge in 1946 he decided to become a state trooper, enrolling in the next training school.

After Moving to the town of Washington, Mrs. Buntin taught at the Washington High School. When then position of superintendent of welfare became open, she applied for it and was hired as of February 1, 1947, making social work her career for just short of thirty-five years, retiring in 1981. After twenty-nine years as a state trooper and two terms as sheriff, her husband continued as a court bailiff. Together they regarded their service to Rappahannock County as being a great privilege.

Mrs. Buntin was a lifelong Episcopalian and an active member of Trinity Church in Washington for many years. She taught the junior high Sunday School class, she was a choir member, and as a member of the Trinity Churchwomen, participated in their activities, especially enjoying being a hostess during the annual house tour and dried flower arrangement sales. After retirement she did volunteer work in the church office where in working with old records she became interested in the history of Bromfield Parish, later completing a book on the subject.

Mrs. Buntin is survived by her daughter Nancy Buntin of the family home, Mrs. Jean Haymes of Falls Church, VA, Mrs. Barbara Swanson and her husband Sam of Ringgold, VA, Jim and Ann Jennings and Stuart and Dolly Jennings of Danville, VA, Carol and Bill Guenter, of Memphis, TN and Bob Gunter of St. Paul, MN. She was preceded in death by her husband, a brother, Robert Guenter and her parents, Otto and Emily Guenter of West Hartford, Connecticut.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Clore-English Funeral Home.

A memorial service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church at a later date. Interment will be in the family plot at the Washington Masonic Cemetery and will be private. It is requested that there be no flowers. Donations may be made to Trinity Episcopal Church or to a favorite charity.