RITCHIE, Virginia E. (Estill)

Memorial service for Virginia E. Estill Ritchie, 98, of Enid, will be held at a later date. Arrangements are by Anderson-Burris Funeral Home and Crematory. Virginia was born March 4, 1912, in Carrier, Okla., to Joseph Hume and Mable (Jones) Estill and died Friday, June 11, 2010, in Enid. She grew up near Carrier and graduated from Carrier High School. Virginia graduated from Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasha, Okla. She later attended nurse’s school at Massachusetts General Hospital. On Feb. 11, 1933, she married Alexander Ritchie in Boston, Mass., and they made their home in Methuen, Mass., and then later in Salem, N.H., before returning to Oklahoma in 1943. Virginia owned her own business, Ritchie Ceramics, in Enid and was recognized as a superior ceramist and judge of ceramics. She was the Enid and district chairman of Toast Mistress of Enid. Virginia drove a car for the first time when she was 9 years old. She was one of a handful of women who could drive a 4-hitch team of horses to deliver wheat to the Carrier grain elevator during harvest. Virginia loved to travel and took several international trips. She was interviewed by the BBC of England about her grandmother, Emma Jones, who made the run into the Cherokee Strip as a widow with six children and settled east of Carrier. Virginia was preceded in death by her husband, Al, in 1976; sisters, Lena Mae Estill Barton and Iva Estill Carver; son-in-law, Bob Gille. She is survived by her daughter, Alexandra Ritchie Gille, Gulf Breeze, Fla.; her son, Mark Hume Ritchie and wife Gayle, Carrier; seven grandchildren, Ardythe Gille Haas and husband Sam, Gulf Breeze, Valerie Gille Monda, Niceville, Fla., Suzanne Gille Michael and husband Daniel, Milton, Fla., Shawn Ritchie, Houston, Texas, Shannon Ritchie Cowan and husband Scott, Sidney, Neb., Kristen Ritchie, Oklahoma City, Jill Ritchie Roecker and husband Kent, Allen, Texas; 11 great-grandchildren, Christopher and Samantha Haas, Robbie and Alex Monda, Sean and Sage Michael, Guy and Grayson Roecker, Mark Colten and Chase Ritchie and Gus Cowan; one great-great-granddaughter, Charlott Haas; and other relatives. Memorials can be made in her name to the charity of donors choice.