Barbara Malone Crookshanks

She was born November 16, 1928, in South Charleston, WV, to the late Joseph and Lucy Malone. She attended Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia for two years before transferring to West Virginia University’s School of Journalism, where she graduated with honors with a BS degree in Journalism. She was a member of Kappa Tau Alpha journalism honorary and the Alpha Delta Pi Sorority.

She first worked for the West Virginia Farm News in Morgantown, WV. She later worked for The Charleston Gazette in the society page. While living in Philadelphia, PA she was an assistant to the makeup editor of The Ladies Home Journal, until she moved to Fredericksburg in 1956, where she became a reporter and worked until her daughters were born. She came back to writing in 1974 for The Fredericksburg Times Magazine and later wrote for the Town and County magazine of the Free Lance-Star as well as Central Rappahannock Regional Library’s Web site. In 2010, she received Virginia Press Women’s Communicator of Achievement Award.

She was a member of the children of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Historic Fredericksburg Foundation, the Bicentennial Commission, and was on the board of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Religious Freedom. She was the past president of the Fredericksburg Chapter of the Mary Washington College Alumnae Association and the Surgeon Laurence Brooke Society. She was president of the Ladies’ Memorial Association of Fredericksburg at the time of her death.

She is survived by her loving husband of 60 years Robert, two daughters, Lee Cotton of Saluda and Virginia Johnson of Fredericksburg; and two grandchildren, Autumn and Benedict.

A funeral service will be held on Friday, September 9, 2011, at Mullins and Thompson Funeral Service, Fredericksburg, at 10:30 AM, with the family receiving friends following the service at the funeral home. The family will reconvene in the Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery for the burial at 1:30 PM.

Memorials may be made in her name to the Ladies’ Memorial Association of Fredericksburg, 1412 Sophia St., Fredericksburg VA 22401.

Online condolences may be made at www.mullinsthompsonfredericksburg.com