Virginia Henry
1918-2007
A memorial service is 11 a.m. June 23, at the Genoa Town Park, for long time Genoa resident Virginia "Ginny" Henry, 89, who died May 27 after battling lymphoma for several months.
Mrs. Henry was born April 20, 1918, in Belvedere, Ill., the eldest child of Alfred and Winifred Meyers. Her family moved to Pasadena, Calif., in 1932 where she attended Pasadena Junior College as a business major, graduating in 1939. About the same time she went to work for the Pasadena Board of Education and married David James "Jim" Henry. At the onset of World War II she accepted a job as a medical receptionist at the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, Calif. remaining there until the arrival of her second son in 1953.
During the '50s and '60s she was a homemaker dedicated to raising three children and helping with the office work at her husband's tool manufacturing business. In 1967 the family moved to Genoa and after her children had grown she returned to work at the Sprouse Reitz Department store in Carson City where she remained for 15 years as a well known clerk until the store closed in 1990.
Throughout her life she cultivated many close friendships, some lasting more than 70 years. In her younger years she enjoyed a variety of activities including dancing at Hollywood's famous Coconut Grove and fishing streams and lakes of the Sierra. Always a very creative and talented individual, she loved embroidery and the textile arts, cooking and gardening. She was especially proud of her purple iris patch, canned peaches and peach jam made from her own trees. For more than 30 years she produced hundreds of pounds of divinity candy for Genoa's Candy Dance, earning herself the moniker "Divinity Queen."
Mrs. Henry was preceded in death by her husband, three brothers and sisters. She is survived by her three children, Jim of Reno, Bill of Oakland and Faye of Port Henry, N.Y.
Memorial donations may be made in her name to the Genoa Volunteer Fire Department, P.O. Box 54, Genoa, NV 89411-0054.
Melba Jo Medlin
1920-2007
A funeral service will be 2 p.m. Saturday, for Melba Jo Medlin, 88 who died June 4, 2007, at Montebello Retirement Home in Albuquerque, N.M.
She was born August 22, 1920, in Bonham, Texas, to Omer and Georgia Alice Neighbors, one of five children. Her parents died when she was 8 years old. She went to live with her older sister Edith and her husband Frank Lovelace. She graduated from Abernathy High School in Texas and attended nursing school in Lubbock, Texas. She married Kit Medlin on Dec. 17, 1938. He was a farmer and she was a homemaker. They lived in several locations including Smith Valley and Gardnerville. During her lifetime she has had various jobs. She worked in the meat department of a grocery store in Arizona; as a bookkeeper at the City Cotton Gin in Abernathy, Texas, and she managed a motel in Ephrata, Wash.
She was a master craftsperson in knitting, crocheting, china and tole painting as well as embroidery and sewing/designing clothes. She used these skills to teach others such as various 4-H girls and to young married women in the communities she lived in. She enjoyed playing bridge, cooking and entertaining friends. She also loved to work the crossword puzzle every day.
She is survived by her adopted son Danny Kit and his wife Tanyi of Portland, Ore.; two granddaughters Margie and her husband Jason Mills of Antelope Springs, Calif. and Mary Jo of San Diego; two great-grandchildren Kyle and Kellie Mills as well as three nieces, one nephew and numerous grand nieces and nephews.
She moved to the Montebello Retirement Community in Albuquerque in 2000.
Arrangements are in the care of Daniels Family Funeral Services in Albuquerque with FitzHenry's Carson Valley Funeral Home in care of services with burial to take place at the Hillcrest Cemetery next to her husband in Smith Valley. Memorial contributions can be made in her name to Ambercare Hospice, 2129 Osuna Rd. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113, The Carson Valley United Methodist Church, 1375 Centerville Lane, Gardnerville or to any charity of your choice.
