Mrs. Mary (Hoag) Kingsbury

Mrs. Kingsbury

Mrs. Mary Hoag Kingsbury, who had been bedfast for nearly three months as the resulf of falling and breaking her thigh on December 18, quietly passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. N. A. Rainbolt, at 5:15 o’clock Sunday evening.  Mrs. Kingsbury was almost 94 years of age, having been born May 2, 1816.

Funeral services will be held at the Rainbolt home Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock, Rev. Edwin Booth, Jr., of the First Congregational church, in charge.

Mrs. Kingsbury was a woman of remarkable intellect and wonderful will power.  Despite her extreme age, up until the time of the accident which led to her death she took the keenest interesti in all that was going on in the world.  Though her eyesight had failed to quite an extent, she continued, by the aid of a powerful glass, to be a great reader, keeping up with the telegraph news of the day with much more precision than most people fifty years younger.  Save for her weakened sight and slightly defective hearing, she retained her faculties to an amazing degree.  Her great constitution and her extraordinary will power were never more clearly shown than in Mrs. Kingbury’s last illness when, week after week and often when it seemed life could not linger another hour, she would revive and fight off the end with growing strength.

For one of her age, Mrs. Kingsbury had an unusually large number of friendships among younger folk of the city and her keen wit and quaint humor were a match for any age.

It was sixteen years ago that Mr. Kingsbury, then 84, expired.  He died January 5, 1894.

Mary Hoag Kingsbury was born May 2, 1816, near Poughkeepsie, N. Y.  On September 17, 1839, she was married to H. F. Kingsbury.  Mrs. Rainbolt of this city is the youngest and only surviving child.

Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury lived for many years in Aurora, Ill.,  moving thence to Ames, Ia., and later to San Diego, Calif.  After a short residence in California they came to Norfolk in the fall of 1883 to make their home with Mr. and Mrs. Rainbolt.

Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury usually spent their winters in California until the last winter of Mr. Kingsbury’s life.

Mrs. W. H Bucholz and Mrs. W. M. Rainbolt are here and Mr. Buchholz and Mr. Rainbolt will arrive tomorrow.  Source:  The Norfolk Weekly News-Journal, Friday, March 18, 1910, page 8.