BERMUDA RUN- Mrs. Virginia Ruth Miller Bolick passed away October 3, 2013 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. She had been a resident of Bermuda Village in Bermuda Run since 2006. She was the fifth of six children born to Isom and Maude Miller on June 24, 1922 in Ashe County North Carolina. A voracious reader, Ruth turned her love of literature into a career. Earning her Bachelors Degree in English from Appalachian State Teachers College and later her Masters in Library Science from Appalachian State University, she went onto become a librarian for over twenty years in the Winston-Salem Forsyth County school system serving long stints at both Southwest Junior High School and Philo Middle School. In between her employment in the public school system, she served as Reference Librarian at Wake Forest University.
Not only a decorated scholar, placing first in a Watauga County academic achievement exam, she was also a woman of rare beauty, finishing runner-up in the Miss Watauga Beauty pageant. Her black-auburn hair and green eyes led many in the area to mistake her for Ava Gardner, another native of the North Carolina mountains.
A devoted mother and loving wife, she always set the bar high for her family embracing the classic Greek ideal of the well-rounded individual; insisting that literature, music and the arts be included in each family member’s life. She prodded all of her children to strive for what Plato believed should be the goal for all individuals, “To create an intuitive insight, and inspiration within oneself that causes the individual to do good and beautiful things.” Good and beautiful is how she wanted the world to appear to all who experienced it. She worked hard to help others see a vision of the world that she, as Plato believed, would benefit all of mankind.
Good and beautiful and kind. Of all things that can be said of Virginia Ruth Miller Bolick, was, yes she was extraordinarily beautiful, brilliant, good to all who encountered her, but most of all, she was kind. In a world that is dominated by so much greed and self-interest, this gentle soul always went out of her way to be kind. And so with her passing everyone who was fortunate enough to have been touched by her is left profoundly empty today. But to paraphrase Yeats, “She would not have us sad…and when she meets our gaze her eyes are laughter-lit…”
Her husband of fifty-eight years, Neil Eugene Bolick, Sr. passed away in 2008.
Mrs. Bolick is survived by her eldest child Margaret Ruth Bolick and her daughter Katie, her son Neil Eugene Bolick Jr., and his wife Hsi-chu Bolick and their son Daniel, her son Gary Franklin Bolick, and his wife Jill and their children Clint and Ryan. Her only surviving sibling is Gaye Miller Pollock of Carrollton, Georgia.
A funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Monday, October 7, 2013 at Frank Vogler and Sons Clemmons Chapel. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the chapel. Burial will be in Westlawn Gardens of Memory.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.frankvoglerandsons.com
The family request in lieu of flowers that donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.
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