Rosalyn Brownley Hudgins White completed her life on October 14, 2024 at her home on Gwynn’s Island, Virginia. She was ninety-nine years old.
Roz was born in Port Haywood, Virginia, on September 1, 1925. While her parents, Irving and Ladie Hudgins, were running W.I. Hudgins General Merchandise, young Roz spent most days up the road in Susan at her aunt Sissie’s. She would arrive on the back of Sam, a retired warhorse whose home was a red barn behind Sissie’s house that still stands today. When she was of schooling age, Roz rode every day to Winter Harbor School with her teacher, Miss Bernice Rowe, who fostered in her a love of learning that would endure for her whole life. Roz attended the newly built Mathews High School, where she was the captain and pitcher of the softball team and editor of the school newspaper. There she met Jeff Valentino White of Mobjack. After graduating the co-valedictorian of her class, Roz attended Mary Washington College and attained her degree in three years.
In 1946, Roz and Jeff were married and moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as secretary to the Librarian of Congress. When Jeff’s job with Equifax took them to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1948, Roz continued working until the birth of her son, Ty, in 1952, and her daughter, Lynne, in 1955. After her children left for college, Roz founded White Typeset Incorporated. At a time when it was difficult for a woman to obtain her own credit card or purchase her own automobile, let alone start her own business, Roz was undeterred. The business quickly outgrew her basement and by 1984, Roz and her business partners were overseeing the construction of a building to house it.
Roz and Jeff often returned to the county of their births, arriving in Mathews with the children in tow for holidays and summer vacations.
By the late ’80s, Roz and Jeff were ready to really come home, and in 1989, they built a house on Gwynn’s Island they named Homagin. Roz was devoted to the community that raised her, and the evidence of that devotion is all over the county. She was an early contributor to Williams Wharf, a founding member of the Mathews Community Foundation, donated the building that today houses the Bay School Community Arts Center, helped purchase the historic Sibley General Store, sponsored the installation of lights on the girls’ softball field, was a longtime supporter of the Mathews Rowing Association, and just last year served as the honorary chair of the Mathews Citizens for the Common Good. She and Jeff funded and administered the White Foundation, which over the course of two decades gave out over a million dollars in small grants to the teachers and students of Mathews County public schools.
Roz was known both for her good sense and her wry sense of humor. She loved Mathews and spoke often of the people here who helped her become the person we are so lucky to have known.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Virginia Dare Sadler; her husband of 66 years, Jeff V. White; and her granddaughter, Laura.
She leaves her son, Ty (Annette Breingan); her daughter, Lynne (David Lowe); her granddaughter, Carolyn (Zane Vaughn); her extended family, Minh Ta, Sara Johnson, and their sons, Jeff and Elliot.
A remembrance gathering will be held at Williams Wharf Landing, Mathews, Va., on Sunday, October 27, 2024, at 2 p.m.
Roz requested that gifts in her memory be made to the Mathews Community Foundation.