Virginia Roberta Russell Beck

November 13, 1920 – April 10, 2014

Virginia, aka Roberta or Bobbie, Beck was the daughter of John Jones Russell (1889-1938) and Elizabeth Pearl Routledge Russell (1897-1987), sister of Clara Russell Bailey (1917-1997) and Emily Russell LaFountain Milner, now residing in Australia.

She was the loving mother of Kathryn Jeanette Curtis Beck (1945-2009), Preston Russell Beck, Virginia Diane Beck and Penelope Annette Beck-Herrero; grandmother of Frank Curtis, Randy Curtis, Angela Curtis Paddock, Darcy Curtis Gonzalez, Jeremy Herrero, Sarah Herrero and Caitlin Beck; great grandmother of Shea Curtis, Taylor Curtis, Colin Curtis, Tiana Gonzalez, Gabriella Gonzalez, Elise Paddock and Cameron Paddock; aunt of Joan LaFountain James, John Charles Bailey and Samuel L. Bailey (1944-1976); mother-in-law of Molly Voigt, Jose Herrero and Laurin Bruck.

Ms. Beck was born in Montgomery, Alabama but raised in Homewood, Alabama. She graduated from Shades Cahaba School in 1938 and was a (WWII) war-time graduate of St. Vincent’s Hospital’s School of Nursing. She served as a Naval nurse in Jacksonville, Florida until 1944 when she married Preston E. Beck, a Naval test pilot whom she was married to for 26 years. She traveled around the U.S. as a Navy wife and practiced nursing in New Mexico, California, Florida and Alabama before retiring from Brookwood Hospital at the age of 70. She resided at St. Martin’s Assisted Living at the time of her death.

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, April 15, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 3775 Crosshaven Drive, Birmingham, AL 35223 where she had been a long time member. Services are under the direction of Ridout’s Valley Chapel (879-3401) in Homewood.