Virginia I. Rackley

Virginia I. Rackley, age 84, of Grants Pass, went home to be with the Lord Sunday evening, April 10, 2011 at Rogue Valley Medical Center.

A graveside memorial service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Monday, April 18th, 2011 at Hawthorne Memorial Gardens, 2500 Upper River Road, Grants Pass, Oregon. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to American Cancer Society, 31 W 6th Street. Medford, Oregon 97501.

Virginia was born December 10th, 1926 in Coweta, Oklahoma, the sixth of eleven children born to Samuel H. Campbell and Alta May Adney. After her 1942 marriage to Tolbert in Coolidge, Arizona they settled in Boron, California where she worked as a store clerk, kept busy with her church and raised her seven children.

In 1963, after a vacation to Oregon, they moved their family to Grants Pass. In the early 70’s Virginia worked as a clerk at Mayfair Market on “G” Street. Before retiring she was also employed at Jiffy Top on Rogue River Highway and Opal’s Drapery Shop on 7th Street.

Fishing was one of Virginia’s favorite pastimes. Besides catching salmon on the Rogue River, she has fished in Alaska, North Carolina and off the California Coast as well as many lakes and streams with her sons and husband, Tolbert, before he passed away in 1984. Virginia, throughout the years, always had a table set for company whether they be family or friend. No one left hungry from her wonderful meals even if there were 25 seated in her kitchen.

Virginia is survived by sons, Clint Rackley of Gold Hill and Melton Rackley of Grants Pass; a daughter Christine Walker of Merlin; 11 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren; many nieces and nephews; two brothers, Herman Campbell of Grants Pass and Paul Campbell of Albany, Oregon; two sisters, Lola Gish of Merlin and Opal Harp of Myrtle Creek.

Preceding Virginia in death are her beloved husband Tolbert; son, Lester Rackley and a daughter, Laverne Rackley, who both passed away while the family lived in Boron, sons, Norman Rackley of Montana and Delbert Rackley of Crescent City, California; three sisters and four brothers.