Virginia Shumate

Her roots run deep, spanning from the hills of West Virginia to her family’s beginnings in Italy. Born in McComas, West Virginia the daughter of Pietro and Mary DeMarchi on July 25, 1937, Virigina Cecelia was raised in Thornhill, a close-knit community blended in Italian culture and coal-town charm. Family has always been the center of everything in her world. She worked in her dad’s store and learned early on how to manage with efficiency – a skill she would need when she became a mother of 4!

She was studious and was the Valedictorian of her graduating high school class. Afterward, she attended National Business College and graduated with a passion for business and a talent for working with finance. She also had a passion for sports cars, as she drove a beautiful Teal and White 57 Chevy. Later, she work for accounting firms, and eventually she retired from her position in bookkeeping for the First Baptist Church where she grew a large circle of new friends.

She found the love of her life when she met and later married George Shumate, who she affectionally called “GV”. He traveled the world in service to his country and found his pearl right back at home in the hills where they started a family in Bluefield Virginia. She would tell you her greatest accomplishment was to be a mother to her four beautiful children, Sabrina, Denise, Keith and Janine. Her family later grew by two more and she was the best mother-in-law anyone could ever hope for. She made lots more room in her heart as her family grew to 5 grandchildren – Erica Simpkins, Matthew Morris, Brock Hopper, Luke Morris, and Wyatt Shumate, and 3 great-grandchildren – Makynzie Hopper, Eban Morris and Marcus Morris.

Virginia was a devout and faithful Catholic, who at one point in her youth had seriously considered becoming a nun. With a passion for volunteering, she shared her love with many through her work with her cherished parish, Sacred Heart in Bluefield West Virginia. She also served the youth of her community through the Girl Scouts program, taking them to our nation’s capital for a happenstance meeting with President Nixon who was “taken with such a wonderful group of scouts”. When it was time for the Italian Festival each year, you would find her in a seat taking her place as part of the meatball rolling brigade, helping to reach the count of 3,000 perfectly shaped, delicious, sauce-complimenting meatballs that were always a hit.

Her circle of friends was wide, and she had a habit of frequenting the Chinese restaurant once per week for gossip, Egg Drop Soup and an Egg Roll. Travel with her friends took her on bus trips for the theater or to the seaside on the Gulf Coast of Florida. She and Sabrina traveled to Italy where she was able to walk the areas where her father grew up and see members of her his family she had never met before.

If you ask family or friends what was special about Virginia, you would get a variety of responses that all point to just how incredible she really was – vibrant, loving, funny, nurturing, caring, passionate, family-centered, angelic – and even when you put all of these together, it still isn’t enough to adequately describe just how wonderful she was, and how she still lives in our hearts and always will.

A viewing will be held at Cravens Shires Funeral Home on Thursday, July 24 from 6-8 PM with a Christian Wake service at 7:00 PM. A funeral mass will be held on Friday, July 25 at 11AM at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bluefield followed by interment at Woodlawn Cemetery. For those who cannot attend the mass, we will live stream her service from Sacred Heart via the website https://sacredheartbluefield.org

To honor Virginia’s love for children, in lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.