Virginia Lee Huffman Scott (1928-1975)

Virginia Lee Huffman was born in Pittsburg, Kansas, in 1928, one of seven children in the Huffman family. On cold Kansas winter nights, they would take hot bricks in thick cloth holders with themto bed to keep warm. Their mother, Florence, did enough canning of the vegetables they raised in the garden to last them through the winter and spring months. Virginia would sometimes spend summers in Hutchinson, where her uncle had a large bakery.

When she was 17 and ready to go to Sterling College, Virginia's mother gave her one timeless piece of advice: "Listen to everyone's advice ... then, do what you think is right." At Sterling, Virginia roomed with two young ladies who would eventually become relatives of hers--Betty Kensett (a cousin of John Scott's who married Howard Edgar, Virginia's cousin) and Ruth Scott, John's sister. When her roommates shortsheeted her bed as a prank one time, Virginia's response was to make their beds perfectly for them every morning while they were at breakfast. The three became good friends at Sterling College and remained so the rest of their lives.

John, Virginia, Fergus Ray Scott, Ella Mae Rose Scott, Ruth Scott

One August afternoon after the end of World War II, Virginia was relaxing in her second floor dorm room when she heard someone whistling loudly for her outside. When she went to the window and looked down, she saw what appeared to be John Scott, all covered in grease and grime from his job at a local filling station. John asked Virginia if she'd like to go with him to a large picnic going on over at Sterling Lake--their first date--and she accepted. Ten minutes later, the enthusiastic suitor was back, all clean and neatly dressed, and when people saw them at the picnic they thought they had been going together all summer.

They married in 1948 and lived in Pittsburg, Kansas, and small towns in southcentral Kansas for the next few years as John Scott pursued a career in educational administration. During this time, their first two children were born, Elizabeth Ann in 1951 and John Clark Jr. in 1953.

When John Scott determined that he would go back to school and change the course of their lives by becoming a medical doctor, Virginia was right there with him. Not only did she watch the children while he studied, but she also obtained her Kansas teaching certificate so that she could make extra money while her husband was in medical school. She bought day-old bread to save money during those years and used her home-economics training to ensure that the children got proper nutrition despite the financial hardships that accompanied this stressful period in the life of the young Scott family.

Their third child, Robert Bruce, was born in 1958 in Kansas City,Kansas, near the end of John Scott's medical school education.The fourth, William Wallace, was born in 1960 in Staten Island,New York, where Dr. John Scott was doing a residency in urology in the Public Health Service. When the family lived in Norfolk, Virginia, from 1964 to 1967, Virginia bought their first and only television, a black and white set, with money she made tutoring an Old Dominion student in English. She also finished work on her masters degree at Old Dominion.

In 1967, Dr. John Scott finished his service obligation to the U.S. Public Health Service, and moved the family back to Kansas to set up his private practice in Great Bend. Virginia had recently lost her mother and the move to Kansas brought her closer to her father, her brother Ted, a preacher at that time in Oswego, her brother Ed, an educator in Altamont, her Aunt Esther Unruh in Hutchinson and countless other close friends across the state and the Midwest. The Scott children enjoyed visits from their Grandfather Huffman, who would drive four or five hours to see them on a regular basis, playing basketball and always leaving $5 to buy ice cream.




Virginia was always vivacious and enjoyed the company of others. Every Christmas, the Scott children would help her address cards to literally hundreds of friends and acquaintances from the different places the family had lived. She was an active member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) and volunteered at the local hospital, Central Kansas Medical Center. She made friends with many people and was a goodfriend, always willing to help in a time of trouble. Virginia was a fervent believer in Christian faith and she knelt and prayed in churches from Switzerland to South America. She would sometimes accompany her Aunt Esther Unruh to a pentecostal church in Hutchinson, where she once got rebaptized. She loved to sing and always was ready to share her faith with anyone she met.

When Dr. John Scott had a bout with colon cancer in 1970, Virginia established a satellite Scott home in an apartment in Rochester, Minnesota, near the Mayo Clinic where Dr. Scott was operated on. The family spent Christmas there that year and when Dr. Scott and Virginia returned to their Great Bend home, she nursed him to full health for three months in early 1971.

John, Virginia, his parents Fergus Ray and Ella Rose Scott, Virginia's mother Florence, sister Lillian Faith and brother Eldon Huffman, late 1940s
This photo, from the late 1940s, shows John, Virginia, his parents, her mother and
Lillian and Eldon, Virginia's sister and one of her five brothers.


Virginia set a positive example for all her children when she faced a weight problem she had had for more than a decade. In 1974, she weighed nearly 300 pounds. She joined Weight Watchers and--at a time when they didn't have an entire line of grocery store products--kept to the regimen. After a year, she had lost more than half her weight and had nearly reached her goal of 128 pounds, her ideal weight.


Virginia became even more active and adventurous as she shed the extra weight. She began taking flying lessons to get her pilot's license. And she accompanied her sons Robert Bruce and William Wallace on a trip to Quito, Ecuador, to visit Robb's pen pal. Virginia was a real hit there and managed to communicate, laugh and establish friendships even though she didn't know Spanish.







(Sept. 11, 1975) At the opening luncheon of the Barton County Auxiliary of the AMA, officers Mmes. H.C. Krueger, vice president, Tell Copening, treasurer, James Degner, Secretary, John Scott, president (standing left to right) and Mrs. Clair Cavanaugh, president elect of the Kansas Auxiliary to the AMA (seated left) and Mrs. Don Kendall, guest of honor, were pictured as they examined Christmas cards for their annual AMA Educational Research Fund project at their opening luncheon Tuesday at the Highland Manor. Mrs. Cavanaugh gave the luncheon address. (caption from Great Bend Daily Tribune)

In the prime of life at age 47, Virginia Lee was taken from her children, friends and relatives on October 4, 1975, when she and her husband John perished in the crash of their private plane at Wichita's Mid-Continent Airport. They were stopping there to arrange for the arrival later that evening of Dr. Scott's mother, Ella Mae Scott (Rose), a resident of the Presbyterian Manor in Sterling. When she arrived that night, she was met by Robert Bruce, William Wallace and Howard and Betty Edgar, their cousins from Hutchinson, Kansas, where the Scott children and their grandmother gathered that weekend before returning to their homes. John Clark Scott Jr. and Linda Kenepaske, now his wife, arrived to Hutch early Sunday morning from Kansas City. Elizabeth Ann Scott's flight from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania arrived in the early afternoon at Wichita, where she was met by her brothers.

The funeral was held at the Reformed Presbyterian Churchin Sterling, Kansas, with Rev. Bruce Backensto and Rev.Luther McFarland presiding. Nearly 500 people filled theold RP church, many traveling long distances to be there. The Scotts are buried in the Sterling, Kansas, cemetery. Their gravestone was designed by their children, and includes Virginia's favorite Bible verses from the Book of Ruth.

Gifts in memory of Virginia and John enabled Sterling College to establish a scholarship fund, which awards promising Biology and English students each year.




FastCounter by LinkExchange