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Virginia Green Culwell of San Antonio passed away on January 1, 2023, of natural causes. She was 95 years old. Born to Albert and Hazel Green in San Antonio on February 4, 1927, Virginia loved to be active and outdoors with her older sister Kathryn. She played trombone in the marching band at Brackenridge High School, graduating in 1944. That summer she worked at Western Union transporting wartime telegrams as a roller skating messenger. Virginia attended San Antonio Junior College then UT Austin, graduating in 1948 with a degree in library science. That year, Brackenridge classmate Charles Culwell, then a midshipman at the US Naval Academy, invited Virginia as his date to annual June Week festivities in Annapolis. Though friends since childhood at the First Baptist Church, this event kindled romance and led to their wedding in June 1949 in the FBC chapel. Charles’ US Navy commission sparked decades of adventure together, relocating them at least 13 times over 30 years, including stops in Naples, Italy and Pearl Harbor, HI. Along the way they welcomed four sons. Virginia proved highly skilled and resourceful in her demanding life, acclimating to new cities, settling her family into new homes, schools, churches. For more than a year during Charles’ long deployment to Vietnam, Virginia single-handedly led her tribe of boys, ranging in age from 2 to 16, often from behind the wheel of her giant Pontiac station wagon. She loved to sew and made clothes for herself and the family. She loved music and could sing many of the old hymns by heart even near the end of life. In 1976 Virginia and Charles settled in Huntington Beach, CA, where Charles pursued his civilian career. Retiring in 1988, they built a home in Escondido, CA as home base for adventurous RV travel. In 1999 they heard Texas’ siren song and returned, first to Austin then finally home to San Antonio in 2006. They enjoyed an active retirement community at The Towers, and relished their return to the First Baptist Church, reviving and building many friendships. Charles, her husband of 72 years, passed away in 2021. Virginia leaves behind sons Andrew, Perry, Curtis and Travis and their spouses, ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Memorial events will take place on Saturday, January 21, with 10am visitation and 11am burial service at Mission Park South, followed by 3pm celebration of the lives of Virginia and Charles in the Wilson Chapel at First Baptist Church. The family expresses their deep gratitude to the caring staff at Franklin Park Memory Care Unit. In lieu of flowers, please send memorial gifts to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.

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Virginia Green Culwell

February 4, 1927 - January 1, 2023