Virginia Hamilton

1922 - 2020

Virginia Hamilton
Virginia Eaton Hamilton was born in Bridgeport, CT on August 11, 1922 to Thomas Henry Eaton and Bessie Diggs Eaton. She graduated from Warren Harding High School in 1939 and attended Bennett College in North Carolina. In October, 1943 she married William Henry Hamilton to whom she was married for 50 years before his death in 1994 and with whom she raised two boys.
Mrs. Hamilton worked as a receptionist at the Bridgeport YMCA for 26 years and retired in 1987. During the 1950s Mrs. Hamilton was involved in community affairs as a parent and concerned member of the black community in such activities and organizations as the Mother's March Against Polio, the Bridgeport Inter-Group Council, the National Congress of Parents and Teachers and the Council of Church Women of Greater Bridgeport. She belonged to Les Treize Business and Professional Women's Organization and was a founding member of the Greater Bridgeport chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc..
At the heart of Mrs. Hamilton's life outside of the home was her lifelong involvement in St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Newfield Avenue where she was baptized and married. Her mother Bessie Eaton was a co-founder in 1920; her own marriage in 1943, in the undercroft of yet-to-be-completed structure was the first to be performed. Among her several roles was serving as the parish vice president of the Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of Connecticut.
Since 2013 Mrs. Hamilton has lived at the St. Joseph's Center in Trumbull, CT. On April 23 she died in her sleep. She is survived by her children William Henry Hamilton, Jr. and Paul Eaton Hamilton; her daughter-in-law Jill Clark-Hamilton, M.D.; and her grandchildren Victoria Bryant Hamilton, William Henry Hamilton, III, Nicholas Clark Hamilton and Lauren Kathryn Hamilton.
She will be interred with her husband at Lakeview Cemetery in Bridgeport. Because of the coronavirus pandemic state of emergency there will be no public services. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be sent to the Connecticut COVID-19 Charity Connection (www.4-ct.org).