Virginia Howie's Obituary
HOWIE, VIRGINIA FARMER, 97, died at her home in Dunedin on June 23, 2024.
She was born in Chicago on October 3, 1926, and as a child lived in Chicago, Paris, Kentucky,
and Detroit. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she met a
young Army soldier and medical student, Donald L. Howie. They married on September 21,
1946. Virginia worked at the National Institutes of Health in Washington. She and Donald lived
in Rhode Island, Colorado, California, Connecticut, and Delaware before moving with their three
children to St. Petersburg in 1962, then to Dunedin in 1976.
Virginia was active in the P.T.A. and volunteered in Band Boosters and as a librarian in
her children’s schools. She was also involved with the American Cancer Society, the AMA
Education Research Foundation, the Pinellas Medical Society Auxiliary, and Maximo
Presbyterian Church where she taught Sunday school. She continued her college education at the
University of South Florida, graduating in 1969. In Dunedin she participated in church activities,
Sunday school, Meals on Wheels, Religious Community Services, the Food Pantry cold night
shelter and the League of Women Voters (more than 50 years). After retirement, she and Donald
traveled extensively, including a freighter trip around the world.
Virginia was predeceased by Donald, her husband of 55 years, her parents Mack Farmer
and Margaret Griffith Farmer, and her siblings Margaret Cowperthwaite, Nancy Stiles, and
Thomas Farmer. She is survived by her children, Douglas Howie of Gavle, Sweden, Bruce
Howie of Lynchburg, Tennessee, and Lynn Howie of Dunedin, her three grandchildren Erik
Howie, Maria Teresa Howie, and Julia Howie, all in Sweden, and nine great grandchildren.
A service for friends and family will be held at the Church of the Reconciler, 915 Drew
Street, Clearwater, on Saturday, July 6, at 1:00 p.m. An internment gathering will be held in the
future in Melrose, Massachusetts. The family thanks the ladies from Home Instead who gave
Virginia excellent care. In lieu of flowers, donations in Virginia’s name may be made to
Neighborly Senior Care Network, neighborly.org, or to Helping Hands Food Pantry,
countrysidecares.com.
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