Virginia Eury Foil

Virginia Eury Foil passed away surrounded by her three children in the late afternoon of October 23, 2019.  

A celebration of life service will be held at 2:00pm Sunday, Oct. 27, at St. James Reformed Church, 8350 Walnut St., Mt. Pleasant. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.

The Foil family will receive friends from 3-5pm Saturday, Oct. 26, at Gordon Funeral Home of Mt. Pleasant, 8559 Cook St., Mt. Pleasant.

Mrs. Foil was born March 20, 1927 in Concord, NC as the daughter of Franklin Alexander and Dorothy Hudspeth Eury.  Mrs. Foil graduated from Kings Business College and worked in Charlotte as a stenographer as well as working at Cannon Mills in Concord prior to the early years of her marriage to John Alexander Foil. 

Mrs. Foil was preceded in death by her husband, John Alexander Foil in 1992, as well as her older son John Alexander Foil, Jr. in 1999.  She is survived by three children, William (Bill) Eugene Foil of Mt. Pleasant, NC, Dorothy Foil Shillinglaw (and her husband Rick Shillinglaw) of Mt. Pleasant, NC, and N. Joanne Foil (and her husband Jim Clayton) of Chapel Hill, NC.  She is also survived by her three granddaughters, Dorothy Clayton O’Neill (and her husband Bret O’Neill) of Hillsborough, NC, Stacy Shillinglaw Swanson (and her husband Clint Swanson) of Murrells Inlet, SC, and Angela Clayton Bartles (and her husband Andrew Bartles) of Des Moines, WA., as well as her eight great-grandchildren, James A. Clayton, Jason, John and Kathryn Pattison, Abigail O’Neill, Hollis and Ellie Swanson, and Olivia Bartles. 

Mrs. Foil spent her lifetime working with her husband and sons to build Foil Farms in Mt Pleasant, North Carolina.  For forty-six years she operated a dairy farm transitioning to beef cattle in 1986.  Over the years Mrs. Foil has received various honors including being named Cabarrus County Outstanding Woman in Agriculture, and 1994 Farm Family of the Year.   She has been featured in at least 4 newspaper articles, as well as Our State magazine, showcasing her many years of farming and has received a letter of accommodation from the United States Army, The Men of the Northfield Team, Delta Company for her donating the use of her farmlands for Green Beret training. 

Mrs. Foil was a long-time member of Saint James Reform Church.  She is well known and well respected in the Mt. Pleasant community as a veteran farmer and an expert in the raising, management and treatment of cows.  Mrs. Foil is the author of two books, Surviving the Depression The Story of Franklin Alexander and Dorothy Hudspeth Eury, published in 2011 and Looking Back, The Story of John Alexander and Virginia Eury Foil and Foil Farms, published by her in 2018.  She has written a third book featuring the histories of the Eury, Hudspeth and Blake families which will be published posthumously.

In addition to farming and writing, Mrs. Foil enjoyed exploring her family history, gardening, her dogs and spending time with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  She especially enjoyed her 2018 trip at age 91 to Seattle, Washington for her granddaughter’s wedding.  She was proud to say that she had been able to dance to her favorite song, “Will You Call Me Sweetheart” at each of her granddaughters’ weddings.

Her parting thoughts as stated in her book Looking Back were:

“I hope my grandchildren have learned, and that my great-grandchildren will learn to appreciate the farmer who feeds us.  When you go to into the supermarkets and see all the beautiful food, think and say a little prayer of thanksgiving for a farmer.  It takes a lot of know-how and hard work.  I hope they will appreciate the animals, both big and small.  Every animal from a hound dog, to a beautiful cow has a right to be treated humanely.  They all respond to kindness. 

I hope that in remembrance of Johnny, you will learn to do what you can to take care of the environment.  We all need clean water and fresh air to breathe.  We need to leave the earth better than we found it.

Lastly, I hope you will treat your fellow man kindly.  There is no room in the world for a hateful spirit.  People, like animals, respond to a loving spirit.  Do a kind deed when you can, as often as you can.”