Virginia’s oldest resident dies at 111. She advised people to be kind

Two months after the death of Virginia Davis Jefferson, family and friends continue to celebrate her record-breaking, 11-decade life and legacy. Jefferson, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s oldest living resident, died June 4 in Lynchburg, just two months shy of what would have been her 112th birthday, on Aug. 14. Before her passing, she’d survived “two world wars, Jim Crow, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President John F. Kennedy, the 2001 terror attacks, the presidencies of 20 U.S. Presidents from William Howard Taft to Joseph R. Biden, Jr., and two pandemics including the Spanish Flu and COVID-19,” according to her obituary. “She was registered and validated by both the LongeviQuest and the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) publications as the oldest living Virginian dated August 14, 2023,” the obituary noted. Three hundred people crowded into the small Altha Grove Baptist Church in Forest, Virginia, on June 10 to pay tribute to the pianist and pastry chef whose life advice to the world was to be kind. While many recalled her skills as a cook, pastry chef, musician and seamstress, others focused on her zest for life and ability to spread joy. Jefferson was “the most caring, generous, helpful...