She was born in Richmond on July 13, 1925, the eldest child of Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire and Catharine Bemiss McGuire. Mary Stuart grew up on Park Avenue in the Fan, but her love of country life was instilled during childhood summers at Brookbury, her grandmother’s farm in Chesterfield County.
Mary Stuart graduated from Chatham Hall in 1943 and received a bachelor of arts in English from Sweet Briar College in 1947. She continued her studies in art at Richmond Professional Institute (now VCU).
In 1950, Mary Stuart married Bates McCluer Gilliam (Mac), a professor at Virginia Military Institute, and adopted Lexington and Rockbridge County as her home for over 70 years. Mary Stuart cared deeply about her communities and worked to conserve special places in nature and to interpret and protect history and architecture.
After raising their children in Lexington, Mac and Mary Stuart moved in the 1970s to a charming historic house on the banks of Hays Creek in Rockbridge Baths, where they lived over 30 years. They remained members of Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington, and also worshipped at Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Rockbridge Baths. Mary Stuart cared for Mac through a long illness and they moved back to Lexington when his health required it.
When the George C. Marshall Foundation established the Marshall library and museum at VMI, Mary Stuart was hired as the assistant to the foundation librarian, Miss Eugenia LeJeune. She was honored to be part of the Marshall Library and its dedication 60 years ago.
In 1966, Mary Stuart founded, with friends, the Historic Lexington Foundation. She was also appointed by two Virginia governors to terms on the Commission on Outdoor Recreation. Later in her life, she was an avid volunteer with the award-winning Roots and Shoots Gardening program at Waddell Elementary School. She loved being a root to teach gardening to her fourth grade shoots.
She was a member of the Blue Ridge Garden Club for over 65 years and served on the board of the Garden Club of Virginia, which awarded her the DeLacy Gray Medal for Conservation in 2010. Her gardens in Rockbridge Baths and on Jackson Avenue in Lexington were beautiful. Her poppies, peonies and roses were appropriately in peak bloom the day she died, in celebration of her life and the work she devoted to them.
A cultivator of joy, Mary Stuart was blessed with a wealth of family and friends. She was extremely proud of her five great-grandchildren, who were a steady source of interest as she monitored their growth. Mary Stuart’s best gift was her ability to connect with friends of all ages. Her company was a source of pleasure for a steady stream of visitors in her final years, whom Mary Stuart welcomed with her famous caramel cupcakes, cheese tarts and lace cookies.
She is survived by her three children, Molly McCluer of Lexington, Jay Gilliam and his wife Anita Filson of Steeles Tavern, and Catharine Gilliam Burns and her husband Wood of Brownsburg; her grandchildren Stuart McCluer and his wife Lane of Sullivan’s Island, S.C., and Nell Gilliam Searles and her husband James of Bon Air; as well as her great-grandchildren Lilly, Margaret and Bates Mc-Cluer, Audrey and Rowan Searles, and many treasured cousins, nieces, and nephews.
Mary Stuart was predeceased by her brothers Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire Jr. of Richmond and Dr. Lockhart Bemiss McGuire of Charlottesville and wife Anne and by her sister-inlaw Ellen Gilliam Perry and her husband Marvin.
The family is deeply grateful to Mary Stuart’s daily caregivers and to everyone at ConnectionsPlus Healthcare + Hospice.
A Service of Thanksgiving for the Life of Mary Stuart Gilliam will be held Saturday, May 25, at 1 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington. Private burial will be at Oak Grove Cemetery.
Memorials may be made to the Waddell Elementary School Roots & Shoots Garden Fund, ConnectionsPlus Healthcare + Hospice, or another charity of choice.
Harrison Funeral Home and Crematory in Lexington is handling funeral arrangements. NG
MADGE SNIDER
Madge Mynes Snider, 101, of Raphine passed away Thursday, May 9, 2024, at Heritage Hall Nursing Home.
Born Feb. 13, 1923, in Rockbridge County, she was a daughter of the late George Stuart Mynes and Lena Arehart Mynes.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Arthur W. Snider; a son, Ronald Wilson Snider; and her siblings.
Surviving are her daughter, Connie Coffey; grandsons Chad Conner and Colby Conner; great-grandson Clinton Conner; two great-great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
Madge was a member of New Mt. Olive Lutheran Church. She was retired from the laundry department at VMI.
A funeral was conducted Tuesday, May 14, at Harrison Funeral Chapel by Dorsey Hostetter. Burial followed at Ludwick Cemetery in Fairfield.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made to Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, 1336 Sterrett Road, Fairfield, VA 24435.
Arrangements were by Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory.
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