LaRue Jones Greene Brittle

Published 10:02 pm Tuesday, August 27, 2024

LaRue Jones Greene Brittle was born in Fort Barnwell, NC, March 6, 1935, to Dewey D. Jones and Claudine Estelle Jones. She passed away at age 89, August 25, 2024, at Bon Secours Maryview CVT ICU in Portsmouth. She was the fifth of eleven children. She was predeceased by four sisters: Thelma Jones Atkins, (Horace), Jackie Jones McCoy (Ornie), Jean Jones Albertson (Doodie) and Mildred Jones; one brother, Bill Jones (Elna), and a son-in-law, Billy Whitehead.

Surviving siblings: Dewey Jones Jr. (Gayle), Vernon Jones (Sue), Frank Jones (Janet), Mollie Jones Fowler (Steve) and Joni Jones Joyner (Gene). She was also pre-deceased by her first husband, William Earle Greene and second husband, Sidney Albert Brittle, Sr.. Left to carry on the Jones family heritage are her three daughters: Lorraine Greene Whitehead (Tilghman Phelps), Cheryl Hewett Stepp (Jimmy), Minnie Brittle Rose (Keith), and son, Sidney Albert Brittle Jr., AKA Toot,(Laurie).

She dearly loved her grandchildren: Mandy Hewett, Austin Whitehead (Monica), Caleb Whitehead (Miranda), Blake Whitehead (Megan), Kristen Rose Darden Edwards (Jon), Brian Rose (Brittany), Carter Brittle, Cole Brittle and Whitley Brittle. Great grandchildren: Sidney Darden, Makinleigh Darden, Adilyn Edwards, Avery Edwards, Eliza Edwards, Makayla Edwards, Cohen Whitehead, Callie Rose, Roy Rose, and Christian Whitehead…and a “large amount” of nieces and nephews.

She grew up in Suffolk where she worked at The Fashion Shop for the Schlitz’s and the Economy Shop. She moved to Wakefield in 1961 with her two oldest girls (Lorraine and Cheryl). Here she lived as a single mother and worked for the Monahan’s at the Virginia Diner then the Tasty Freeze for Arnold Moore. She fell in love and married Sidney Brittle. In 1967, they, with her two daughters and now her third daughter, Minnie, moved to Sedley, where she had her first son, Sidney Jr. She became an integral member of the community, even helping to raise the funding needed to pay off the old Sedley School building, which is now the property where the Sedley Ball Field is located. Later she moved to Waverly and reunited with her high school sweetheart, Harold Britt and returned to Sedley upon his death.

She was bold and bodacious and oh the stories she could tell. She talked about growing up during the depression…toting water from creeks, wells, wood stoves and the scarcity of the times. She bragged about roller skating all over downtown Suffolk, playing softball in school, singing in the chorus and stage shows. During her years in Wakefield, she played the piano and bass guitar with her sister Thelma Atkins in the all-girl band, the Nashville Kitty Kats. They played for several Moose Lodges and they even appeared on a TV station out of Petersburg in the 60’s. She sewed, she canned, she raised chickens, she cooked goulash…but what she loved to do the most was to dance: ‘We Be Jammin’, in Franklin to the Silver Street Band. Every Wednesday night, she and her daughters and some of her grandkids would go to get ice cream at Dairy Queen….She loved doing things with the kids. And I can’t forget THRIFT SHOPPING…it was more like treasure hunting to her.

She lived out loud and had no problem letting anyone know how she felt about any and everything…but especially if she felt somebody was doing somebody wrong. And lastly I will mention her pets…cats and dogs. She loved her pets, but especially her Gigi. He even got to go to Dairy Queen with her on Wednesday nights and got the doggie ice cream.

“Dear woman, you will be missed, you have left a big hole in our hearts here on this planet, but we know for sure that there is a dance party going on in heaven as you reunite with your parents, brother, sisters and favorite son in law, Billy Whitehead.”

A funeral service will be held September 1, 2024, at 2 PM at R.W. Baker & Co. Funeral Home and Crematory, 509 W. Washington Street, Suffolk, VA 23434. Visitation will be 1 hour prior.

Private burial to follow at the Jones-Lassiter Family cemetery for family and extended family. Family will be receiving visitors at the Edward’s home on 31179 Country Club Road, Franklin, VA (Hunterdale) upon returning from the cemetery.