Virgina McKinney resident article

Virgina McKinney

      Virgina McKinney was born in Mississippi on June the 18th 1922 to Frank and Stella Cotten. She had six siblings and she was the seventh. She remembers living on a farm in Arkansas and then moving to a place just outside of Memphis Tenn. when she was six years old.

          Some of her fondest memories was playing with some of her neices and newphe's who were her age because she was so much younger. She loved her family they always enjoyed one anothers company. She loved to play hopscotch, hide and seek, and jump rope.

          Virgina's father passed away when she was four but she remembers one precious memory of him just before he died. They were living on the farm and she remembers running through the house. He was sitting in a rocking chair and he called her over to come sit on his lap. He pulled her up on his lap and told her that he was going to buy her a little red riding hood suit and a pony.

          During her high school years, Virgina participated in being a cheerleader and did a lot of dancing. Virgina graduated Humes high school in Memphis Tenn. in 1940, which was the same school that Elvis Presley graduated from.           

          After high school Virgina went to a six month school in 1941 to become a secretary. She then went to work for a southern living company and worked until she got married in 1946.

          Virgina met her husband, before the war started, as she was coming out of her apartment. His parents lived in the apartment directly across the hall from her. He was playing football at LSU and lived in Louisiana at the time. He was home visiting one day and when she saw him she said, "I am going to marry that guy." It was love at first sight. When the war broke out he was sent to China. When he came back he asked her for a date. They dated three months before they got married on March 9th 1946 in a Christian church.

          They moved to Illinois since her husband was in the service. Then they moved to Bramuda in the fifties for three years where she had two of her sons. They moved to California where her husband was assigned at Norten air force until he retired. When he retired he went to work for Allstate Insurance and when he retired from there they moved to Utah in 1997. She never had to work and was able to stay home with her children. Virgina loves life and all the great memories she has. She loved watching her three sons play football.

          Virgina remembers when they got their first television set in 1950. She lived on Scott air force base in Illinois and they were the first ones on the base to get a television set. All the kids would come over and watch The Howdy Doody Show and whatever else was on.     

          Two of the biggest events in her life was when she lost her son who was 44 to pancriatic cancer and when she lost her husband on November 1st 2009. Even though these events were bleak in her life they were not sad since she had so many happy memories that out weighed the bad.

          Virgina moved to the Seville in Feb. 2012. She loves living here. She's met great people and has enjoyed playing bingo and other various activities. One peice of advice she gives is for the husband to love the wife the way Christ loved the church and for women to respect their husbands.