Virginia Tye Cockerill

A celebration of life for Virginia Tye Cockerill, 91, a Carson City resident for the past 17 years, will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the family home. Another celebration of life will be 9 a.m. July 15 at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, Calif., at her husband's gravesite.

Mrs. Cockerill died July 4, 2005, at Carson-Tahoe Hospital after a brief illness. She was born April 17, 1914, in Fonda, Iowa, to Charles H. and Ethel Keys Tye.

She grew up in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State Teachers College at Ames, Iowa. She and her twin sister, "Boots," were Iowa State Doubles Tennis champions in 1934.

She married Philip C. Cockerill on June 9, 1938, in Pasadena, Calif.

She began teaching in Iowa, then was an elementary school teacher for 28 years at Chandler School in Pasadena, retiring in 1988. She taught swimming at the YWCA and Gerrish Swim Academy. She was active in her church and local bridge clubs. She enjoyed entertaining and winning an occasional jackpot at the Carson Nugget. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Pasadena and Carson City.

She was preceded in death by her husband, sisters Beulah "Boots" Rader and Marjorie Jones and brother Charles Tye.

Among her survivors are her sons Park and Charles; granddaughters Lisa Hunsucker and Emily Cockerill; grandson, Jonathan Cockerill, and great-granddaughter, Drew Cockerill.

FitzHenry's Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.