Virginia L. Poe

As a young woman, Virginia sang with her brother’s band in the Chicago area until he left to serve his country in WWII. In 1945, she married Ivan Edward Crum. With her parents’ help, Virginia, who was an accomplished dancer, opened a successful dance studio where she taught until the family moved to Florida in 1950.

After moving to Florida, Virginia was divorced, and worked for an employment agency where she met her future husband, Dean Poe. Later she worked as a secretary at the Florida Times Union and as a credit manager for J.M. Fields, Lerner Shops, Mangles, and Wickes Lumber Company.

A devoted mother and grandmother, she supported her children’s and grandchildren’s needs, often at great sacrifice to her own desires.

Virginia was predeceased by her parents, August Jay Walter and Doris Stevens Walter, her brother, George Jay Walter, her son-in-law, Donald F. Benton and daughter-in-law, Sue Poe. She is survived by her children Nancy Caress and son-in-law, James; her son, Jerry (B.J.) Poe and daughter-in-law, Bea; and her daughter, April Tischer and son-in-law, Richard; grandchildren Sheri Henry, Lewis Poe, Bruce Poe, Tiffany Lawless, and Kira Benton -Tischer; great-grandchildren Josie and Hayden Henry, Devin, Ian, and Sedrick Poe, and Christian and Aidan Lawless; sister-in-law, Betty Walter, and niece, Cynthia Eckhardt as well as many other nieces and nephews.

A tribute to Virginia’s life will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 28 at Hardage Giddens Funeral Home, 11801 San Jose Boulevard, Jacksonville, FL 32223. Donations may be made in Virginia’s honor to The American Diabetes Association, 8384 Baymeadows Rd., Suite 10, Jacksonville, FL 32256.