Virginia Gates Speir, age 94, died June 13, 2009 at Spanish Oaks Retreat and Hospice in Savannah, GA.

The widow of W. Lee Speir and the daughter of Freda Metzger Gates and John Dick Gates, Ginny was born October 8, 1914 in Wilmington, NC. She lived most of her early life in Savannah, GA before moving to Brunswick, GA where she and her husband lived for many years. For the last three years she lived in Savannah.

Ginny attended Newberry College, Newberry, SC and the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. She graduated from Lander College, Greenwood, SC in 1937 and was a retired school teacher.

She was a past member of the Bonaventure Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and the Georgia Salzburger Society. While living in Brunswick, GA she was an active member of the First United Methodist Church where she was a member and past president of the United Methodist Women, a teacher of the Philathea Sunday School Class for several years and a teacher of the Julia Sherman Bible Class for many years. Some of her other interests in Brunswick included participation in the Windsor Park Neighborhood Garden Club, the Friends of the Brunswick-Glynn Library, a monthly Supper Club and several bridge clubs.

Ginny is survived by her cousins, Freda Groover Dzielinski and Edwina Harley Hanson; other extended family members and many friends.

Visitation: 1:00-2:00 p.m. Monday at Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors, Hodgson Chapel.

Graveside Funeral Service: 2:30 p.m. Monday at Forest Lawn Memory Gardens in Savannah, GA beside her beloved husband.

Remembrances: Spanish Oaks Foundation, 8510 Whitfield Ave., Savannah, GA 31406; Alzheimer's Foundation of Glynn County, 3011 Hampton Ave., Suite 340, Brunswick, GA 31520 or Daughters of the American Revolution, Bonaventure Chapter, Savannah, GA.