Virginia Dowdle Obituary

Virginia Sandy Dowdle MT. PLEASANT - Virginia Sandy Dowdle was born on June 2, 1930, to Earl Louis Sandy and Mary Louise Sandy of Rockford, Illinois. She had one brother, Earl Sandy, Jr, who died in 1987. Her early life was difficult, as her mother was often ill and her father travelled for work as a salesman. Nonetheless, she excelled in high school and became the first in her immediate family to attend college. Virginia was admitted to the University of South Carolina at Columbia in 1948 and graduated in 1952. She studied art and began a long career as an accomplished painter. In 1950 she married John W. Dowdle, Jr., who was studying law at USC, and whom she met on a blind date at the Atlantic House on Folly Beach, near Charleston. John had previously been in the US Navy at the end of World War II and was called up to active duty for the Korean War. He was stationed in the Mediterranean, and Virginia joined him there for nearly a year, taking the opportunity to see much of Europe, which influenced her art for the rest of her life. Virginia and John moved to Alexandria, Virginia, in 1953, and over the next few years Virginia gave birth to three children, John Wesley Dowdle III, Jason Earl Dowdle, and Merriman Lee Dowdle. In 1960 the young family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, when John took a position with R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Over the next two decades Virginia spent her time focusing on the things she loved most, raising her three children as a dedicated wife and mother and pursuing a successful career as a painter and an interior designer. She was an early member and had a long association with SECCA, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, in Winston-Salem. She had numerous showings of her work, both in Winston-Salem and around the Southeast, and sold her work to many collectors around the country. She also had her own interior and exterior design company, Sandy Designs, for many years. In the mid-1980s John retired from R. J. Reynolds, and the couple moved to Kiawah Island, South Carolina. They eventually built a beachfront house on the Isle of Palms, which they moved into in 1988 and where they enjoyed life for the next two decades, entertaining friends and maintaining a household noted for its hospitality, vitality, and generosity. During this time they also had many opportunities to travel, visiting Europe, Russia, Egypt and other African countries, South America, and parts of Asia and the South Pacific. Images from many of these voyages found their way into Virginia's paintings, as she continued to pursue her art nearly to the end of her life. John Dowdle died in the spring of 2008, and in 2010 Virginia moved into Somerby, a retirement community in Mt. Pleasant, where she continued to paint and to enjoy visits from her children and grandchildren. In her declining years Virginia found great comfort in the care and friendship of three wonderful women from nearby Awendaw, Joyce Capers, Patricia Mitchell, and Pauline Wright. Virginia died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, May 15, surrounded by loving family and friends. She was two weeks shy of her eighty-fourth birthday. Virginia is survived by her three children. John Dowdle lives on James Island. Jason Dowdle and wife Laura live in Snow Camp, North Carolina, and Merriman Dowdle and husband Wayne Barfield live on Johns Island. Virginia also has two grandsons by Merriman, Max Miller Dowdle and Isaac Miller. Max and wife Caroline Morrow Dowdle live in Apex, North Carolina, and are expecting a child, which would have been Virginia's first great-grandchild. Isaac Miller and Leigh Hilton live in Charlottesville, Virginia. Virginia's wish was to be cremated. A memorial service is planned for June 14 on Johns Island at the home of Merriman Dowdle and Wayne Barfield. In lieu of flowers, the family requests friends make a generous donation to Habitat for Humanity or the hospice organization of their choice. Expressions of sympathy may be viewed or submitted online at www.McAlister-Smith.com Arrangements have been entrusted to McALISTER-SMITH FUNERAL HOME, MT. PLEASANT CHAPEL, 1520 RIFLE RANGE ROAD, MT. PLEASANT, SC 29464. (843) 884-3833 Visit our guestbook at www.legacy.com/obituaries/ charleston