Ancestors
Virginia Louise Gaston
1909-1998 · South Carolina
Born 1909, South Carolina
Died 1998
Father: Chalmers Gaston
Mother: Mary Cornelia McKeown
Children include Francis
Virginia Louise Gaston was born on 11 February 1909 in South Carolina. Her gravestone keeps her maiden name: it reads "Virginia Gaston Campbell".
She was the daughter of Chalmers Gaston, a Chester County farmer, and his wife Mary Cornelia McKeown. In 1910 their household in Baton Rouge township held her as Virginie, aged one, with a brother, James M., aged three. When her father died in 1953 his obituary named her first among his five daughters, as "Mrs Leonard Campbell". When her mother died in 1973, her obituary named her first among five daughters, as "Mrs. Virginia Campbell". Her grandfather Lee Gaston had ridden with the 1st South Carolina Cavalry in the Civil War.
On 28 December 1925 Virginia Gaston and Leonard Campbell took out a marriage licence at Chester. She was sixteen. They raised five children at Chester: William Edward, born in 1929, James Walter, called J. W., in 1932, Minnie Jane in 1936, Edith, and Frances Louise, born in 1948 when Virginia was thirty-eight. The name James ran in both families: she had a brother James, and her second son was James Walter.
In April 1950 she was forty and keeping house at Chester while Leonard worked as a carpenter at the Eureka cotton mill. James, Minnie and the two-year-old Frances were still at home.
Her youngest brother, Chalmers Marion Gaston, was killed in action in Belgium in December 1944, aged nineteen. Her father died in Chester in 1953 and her mother in 1973.
Leonard died in 1986. Virginia lived twelve more years and died on 19 July 1998, aged eighty-nine. She was buried beside him in Evergreen Cemetery at Chester, the cemetery where her parents and brother also lie. In 2016 her son J. W.'s obituary named his parents as "the late Edward Leonard Campbell and Virginia Gaston Campbell".
Sources
1950 United States census, Chester, Chester County, South Carolina, enumeration district 12-19, sheet 41, lines 1-5, FamilySearch ark 1:1:6F7Q-G7WG, image 3:1:3QHJ-5QHW-18VC.
Obituary of Mr. J. W. Campbell, Barron Funeral Home, Chester, South Carolina, March 2016, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 160083194.
Photograph added 2 October 2025 by Doug Marion, Find a Grave memorial 46859228, Evergreen Cemetery, Chester, South Carolina.
1910 United States census, Baton Rouge township, Chester County, South Carolina, sheet 13A, NARA T624, FamilySearch ark 1:1:M5D2-J3R.
1910 census, Baton Rouge township, Chester County (FamilySearch ark 1:1:M5D2-J3R); South Carolina, County Marriage Licenses, 1911-1953, Chester, 28 December 1925 (FamilySearch); 1950 census, Chester, ED 12-19, sheet 41 (FamilySearch ark 1:1:6F7Q-G7W2); Social Security Death Index; obituary of James Walter "J. W." Campbell, March 2016; gravestone, Find a Grave memorial 46859228
Find a Grave memorial 46859228, Evergreen Cemetery, Chester, Chester County, South Carolina, photograph added 2 October 2025.
Obituary of Frances Louise Campbell Ferrell, Chester, South Carolina, April 2020, transcribed on Find a Grave memorial 209513599.
The State (Columbia, South Carolina), 21 February 1953, page 8-A; clipping added 18 January 2014 by GMG to Find a Grave memorial 42421759.
The State (Columbia, South Carolina), August 1973; clipping added 8 February 2014 by GMG to Find a Grave memorial 42421793.
1910 census, Baton Rouge township, Chester County (FamilySearch ark 1:1:M5D2-J3R); South Carolina, County Marriage Licenses, 1911-1953, Chester, 28 December 1925 (FamilySearch); 1950 census, Chester, ED 12-19, sheet 41 (FamilySearch ark 1:1:6F7Q-G7W2); obituary of Chalmers Gaston, The State, 21 February 1953; Social Security Death Index; obituary of James Walter "J. W." Campbell, March 2016; gravestone, Find a Grave memorial 46859228; obituary of Mary McKeown Gaston, The State, August 1973.
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Cite: Heirology, "Virginia Louise Gaston (1909-1998)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/virginia-louise-gaston-1909-1998-ba79e2.