Wednesday, January 30, 2019
A tribute to Jeanette Regina Quesenberry, an acquaintance for 71 years, but a close blessed friend the last 9 1/2 - 10 years.
Regina began life along the Lumberton River near Myrtle Beach, SC, as Jeanette Regina Hammond, b: July 10, 1933. She was raised by her loving Grandmother Byrd until age 14 when she moved to Danville, VA, to be with her mother and step-father and shortly thereafter in 1948 to Pulaski, VA, where I met her as a friend of my best buddy. She was a keeper of memory via photographs of her time in Pulaski. I left Pulaski in 1949 and didn't meet Regina again until the summer of 2009. During that long period she lived a very wide and eventful life, based in Wytheville, VA, but spent in many areas of VA, KY, and WVa. Events led me through life through other areas and eventually to Radford, VA. In the summer of 2009, after the death of my wife, Regina and I were driven together by events involving her business, and we began to create a friendship. We became very close friends, and remained so until her death on Jan. 26.
Regina was brilliant, creative, artful, and an extremely accomplished business woman, who closed out her husband's vast and complicated construction and mining businesses upon his untimely death ca 1993. She was a true animal-lover and supporter of animals. We jokingly agreed she was a graduate of the Ft. Chiswell School of Medicine because of her knowledge regarding all things medical. Her collection of memorabilia at her home is staggering in its volume and value. At that home she created a gardening showplace that was well known throughout and featured in the newspapers of the area.
The gap she has left in my life is vast and will last for the remaining years of my life.
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