Virginia Douglas: b. 1932, d. 2025
A remembrance by Jeremy Shipp:
"Although my time with Virginia Douglas was relatively brief, she made
herself a friend to me when I was first singing with the Epworth group
in the mid-2000s. She took me to my first Sacred Harp singing (the
National Convention in Birmingham), and she drove my new wife and me
around Knoxville to look at neighborhoods to settle in when we moved
back from Atlanta. She cared about how old harp singing was done, and
in those early years she would frequently admonish me for leading
songs that neither I nor the group knew, for singing too loud, for
singing off key. Kathleen first taught
me, Odis was the voice in my ear,
Larry O gave encouragement, but Virginia
Douglas was the coach who was hard on me but who I knew cared about me
and was molding me to be a better singer and a better servant to the
tradition."
Claudia Dean wrote the following in the 2026 Old Harp newsletter:
Virginia Douglas, who sang alto with the Epworth Old Harp singers in Knoxville for many years, died in Vermont on October 13, 2025. She had moved to Bristol, Vermont, several years before her death to be with family.
I realized I didn't know much factual about Virginia when I started to write a remembrance of her. While driving us on to Longtime Epworth Old Harp alto Virginia Douglas North Carolina or Alabama sings I learned that she had two daughters, had been married twice, had worked in food service, antique dealing and property management and her sister drove an 18 wheeler for a living. Some of what follows comes from other singers' recollections.
Virginia grew up in Utah and studied at Utah State University's Quinney College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She moved to Tennessee from the northeast (New Jersey?) to be with family in Oak Ridge. Virginia heard shape note singing and other old-time music at the Laurel Theater and was hooked. She was a valued volunteer at concerts at the Laurel and Luggage tag bequeathed to Sara Baskin by started singing Old Harp with the Knoxville Virginia people who sang at Helen Hutchinson's home before the group coalesced into the Epworth singers.
Virginia was singing Old Harp when I started singing in 2003. She had strong ideas about the right way to sing which were influenced by her friendship and admiration of Sacred Harp singers on Sand Mountain in Alabama. Virginia travelled to both Sacred Harp conventions and Christian Harmony singings.
Virginia was very particular about our potlucks. She scavenged and donated all our current serving pieces and insisted that food be cut into portions before putting it out for dinner. Robin Goddard, our dinner on the grounds maven, was coached by Virginia. In Robin's words “I helped her for many years with the potlucks and she told me what to do and I did it!”
Everyone who responded to my request for information about Virginia emphasized the same thing—Virginia had strong opinions and did not hesitate to state them. She wanted to see things DONE RIGHT, and that included shape note singing!
Special mentions at singings
- 2017: Jubilee Festival
- 2015: Greene County
- 2011: Kathy Jones Memorial
- 2006: Greene County