Virginia Billingsley

ELOY — Virginia Lee Billingsley, 83, of Eloy died on March 27, 2011, at the Arizona State Veterans Home in Phoenix.
Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday at Calvary Baptist Church in Casa Grande. The service will follow at 11. Burial will be in Eloy Memorial Park.
Mrs. Billingsley was born on March 9, 1928, in Lubbock, Texas, and was a daughter of James Montgomery and Marguerite Jones. She was a teacher and also was a concert pianist who played for many churches in the area as well as Eloy and Casa Grande music clubs. She helped start Baptist churches in the area, most recently Desert Sky Baptist Church. She traveled to European sites to see where music composers lived and died.
She was a supporter of education and taught special-education classes often, including at the Arizona Training Program at Coolidge and Mary C. O’Brien School. She was a devoted daughter, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
Survivors include two daughters, Cheryl Clower of Fairfield, Calif., and Nancy Casaburi of Farmingville, N.Y.; two sons, Granville F. Billingsley Jr. of Louisville, Ky., and James Billingsley of Mascoutah, Ill.; five sisters, Betty Williams of Hesperia, Calif., Ruth Lawhon of Casa Grande, Patsy Ware of El Paso, Texas, Jo Carol Harris of Richmond, Va., and Donna Elliott of Casa Grande; two brothers, Jim Montgomery of Dallas and John Montgomery of Casa Grande; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Granville F., and a sister, Jane Blackwood.
J. Warren Funeral Services, Cole & Maud The Gardens Chapel is in charge of arrangements.