Virginia Niblo Hughes

Virginia Niblo Hughes, 88, died peacefully on April 17th, 2013. She had been in declining health for several years. The youngest child and only daughter of Helen Arnold Hughes of Thomasville and Samuel Osco Hughes, Sr., of Simpson Creek Township present-day Loris, South Carolina, she was born in Thomasville on December 19th, 1924. After her father's untimely death in 1929, she grew up in the Madison Street home of her grandfather, Henry Arnold, Sr., and was raised by her uncles, Fritz Arnold and Henry Arnold, Jr. Her great-grandfather, John Peter Arnold, an early and prominent resident of Thomasville, emigrated from Boppard-on-the-Rhine, Germany, in the 1840s and founded Arnold Brick Yard, which until 1973 manufactured the bricks used in many of Thomasville's eminent residences and commercial buildings
A member of the Class of 1942 at Thomasville High School, she trained as a Registered Nurse at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. After graduation, she held a leading position on the nursing staff at Piedmont until 1949, when she was hired by the Veterans' Administration Hospital in Chamblee. Subsequently, she was transferred to the VA hospital in Dayton, Ohio, where she worked as Head of Nursing until 1957. From 1957 until 1964, she was on the nursing staff at Savannah Memorial Hospital, after which she returned to Thomasville to care for her aging mother. As Head Nurse on 3-West at Archbold Memorial Hospital for 25 years, she rigorously and expertly trained several generations of nurses in Thomasville until she retired in 1989.
After retirement, she devoted herself to local civic activities, including the Adoption Agency, the Foster Panel, and the Literacy Project, as well as to her family and friends and her cats.
Her only immediate survivors are her nephew, Raymond Hughes, of Thomasville; and her great-nephews, Jessie Hughes of Atlanta, and Sam Hughes of Thomasville. Her brothers, William Henry Hughes and Samuel Osco 'Sco' Hughes; her sister-in-law, Doris Sutton Hughes; and her nephew, Robert Arnold Hughes, preceded her in death. Her fiancé, US Army Captain Walt Waller, of Cumberland, Ohio, who was the great love of her life, died in January 1957, a few weeks before their planned wedding. Extended family includes Lisa Reichert Hughes, Margaret Arnold, and Joy Salter of Thomasville; Mary Jane and Tom White of Fitzgerald; Alecia, Thomas, and Bradlee Barrett of Soperton; Allison and Brian Norris of Douglas; and Norman Dunfee of New York City; as well as her long-time caregiver, Lucille Green, of Thomasville.
The Reverend Judith Jones-Keith of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church will conduct graveside services at the Arnold family plot on 2ndStreet at Laurel Hill Cemetery at 2:00PM on Saturday, April 20, 2013. The family will receive friends after the service at 318 Glenwood Drive in Thomasville.
The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to either the Organ Fund at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, Thomasville Music and Drama Troupe www.thomasvillemusicanddramatroupe.com , or the Miss Kitty Feline Sanctuary www.misskittysanctuary.org .