Grace Warren Rowell Phelps Rhinesmith
1/15/2015
Grace Warren Rowell Phelps Rhinesmith of Walkerton, King and Queen County, VA, died on Sunday, January 4, 2015, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. She was born on February 11, 1942 in Newport News, VA. She is predeceased by her parents, Arthur Warren and Grace Rowell Phelps, her sister Margaret Phelps Vaughan, and her husband of forty years, William Donald Rhinesmith.
Raised in Williamsburg, VA, she attended James Blair High School and was her class valedictorian. She graduated from Westhampton College of the University of Richmond Phi Beta Kappa in 1963, having spent her junior year abroad at the University of Exeter. She taught history in the Hanover County Public Schools and at St. Margaret's Episcopal School for Girls in Tappahannock, VA.
She retired in 2009. She received her Master's in Curriculum Instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University. She was active in numerous community affairs. She served faithfully as a Lay Eucharist Minister, as a member of the Altar Guild, as a member of the Vestry over many years and as the Senior Warden, and as a member of the choir at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Millers Tavern, VA. She served often as a delegate to the Annual Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and as her parish's representative to Region 2.
She was a member of the King and Queen Historical Society and a board member of the Pamunkey Regional Library Board. An avid and accomplished flower arranger, she was a founding member of the Garden Club of the Middle Peninsula and served as a vice president and then as its president. She loved and enjoyed her family, her church, teaching, books, the theater, the opera, her beloved Mattaponi River, kayaking, biking, traveling and her countless friends.
She is survived by her daughter, Caroline Rhinesmith Weimar and her husband, William Charles Weimar, two grandchildren, John Whitlow Rudder and Caroline Grace Rudder all of Charlottesville, VA; a step-sister, Ann Croll of Ottowa, Canada, a step-brother, Charles Bryan Duke of Webster, New York, and a sister-in-law, Gloria Rhinesmith Nuckles of Yorktown, VA. Services will be held at 2 PM on Friday, January 9, 2015, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Millers Tavern, VA, with burial in the church cemetery. The Reverend Canon Robert G. Hetherington will officiate. The family will receive friends at her home on Thursday, January 8, from 3 until 5 PM. Memorial gifts may be made in her memory to the Landscaping Fund or the Altar Guild at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Post Office Box 278, Millers Tavern, VA 23115; The Garden Club of Virginia, The Kent-Valentine House, 12 East Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23220; or Save the Mattaponi Alliance, Post Office Box 150, Mattaponi, VA 23110.
