Eleanor P. Cross

ELEANOR P. CROSS, 102, Wife of the Late Honorable Judge Charles B. Cross, Jr. of Chesapeake, VA,

Passes Away on September 23, 2022

by Charlotte M. Cross

Eleanor P. Cross, 102, passed away peacefully of natural causes on September 23, 2022 in her home at Westminster-Canterbury on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach, VA. She considered herself a homemaker, but she was also a writer, historian, and philanthropist. She was preceded in death by her husband, the Honorable Judge Charles B. Cross, Jr., and by her two younger brothers, John Gibson Phillips and Billy Baker Phillips. She is survived by her two daughters, Martha Cross Blakely of Annapolis, Maryland, and Charlotte Marie Cross of New York City. She will be laid to rest beside her husband at the Oak Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth, VA.

The family will receive friends from 10am to 12pm on Sunday, October 9, 2022 at Hollomon- Brown Funeral Home, Great Neck Chapel (1264 N. Great Neck Rd., Virginia Beach, VA 23454). A celebration of life service will follow at 2pm in the chapel at Westminster-Canterbury (3100 Shore Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23451), with a reception immediately after. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to The Westminster-Canterbury Foundation.

Eleanor Cross was born Eleanor Royce Phillips on April 9, 1920. She was the daughter of Roy Franklin Phillips and Mabel Starr Gibson.

Eleanor grew up in Hampton, VA. She graduated from Hampton High School in 1937 and earned her B.S. from Mary Washington College (now University of Mary Washington) in Fredericksburg, VA in 1941.

By the time Eleanor graduated from college, her parents had moved to Norfolk, VA. She taught typing and shorthand for a year at Oceana High School in what was then Princess Anne County (now the City of Virginia Beach). She then worked as a secretary in the law office at the Portsmouth Naval Yard. One of the young lawyers for whom she worked was then Lieutenant USNR, Charles Brinson Cross, Jr. They fell in love and were married on April 19, 1944.

After World War II, Eleanor continued to work as a legal secretary and notary public for Charles in his law practice in Portsmouth, VA.

In the mid-1950s, Eleanor and Charles moved from Portsmouth to the Churchland section of what was then Norfolk County. While living in Churchland, Eleanor devoted herself to raising her two daughters. Horses had been one of Eleanor's loves as a child. She shared this passion with her daughters. She helped them learn to ride and accompanied them to horse shows throughout Virginia in the early 1960s. Eleanor herself often participated in local horse shows. At the same time, she was active in the Churchland Women's Club.

As the wife of Charles B. Cross, Jr., generally acknowledged as the political architect and

a founding father of the City of Chesapeake, Eleanor had the privilege of observing firsthand many of the discussions and meetings that took place during the late 1950s and early 1960s to effect the merger of Norfolk County with the City of South Norfolk to create Chesapeake. After Chesapeake became a city on January 1, 1963, Eleanor worked for a few years as a reporter for the newly founded Chesapeake Post.

She reported local news and occasionally wrote human interest stories. In her later years, she often said that she discovered that she was not cut-out to be a reporter one Easter Sunday in the mid-1960s. Faced with the choice of attending the Easter church service with her family or reporting on the local fire and police departments' rescue of a man who was standing on the railing of the old Churchland Bridge threatening to jump, Eleanor, for whom family always came first, turned down what would have been a major coup for any reporter in order to attend church with her family instead.

Shortly after resigning as a reporter, Eleanor began following her passion for history. She used her outstanding writing and editing abilities to produce a number of books and articles on local history. She authored An Ancient Stand of Methodism: Oak Grove United Methodist Church, Chesapeake, Virginia 1770-1970 (1970), edited The Voyages of Frederick Williams (Norfolk County Historical Society of Chesapeake, 1972), and co-authored (with Charles Cross) Chesapeake: A Pictorial History (Donning Company/Publishers, 1985). Eleanor longed to see the restoration of the site where the Battle of Great Bridge had taken place during the American Revolutionary War. The existence of The Great Bridge Battlefield and Waterways History Foundation is partially attributable to Eleanor's interest in the battlefield's restoration.

Eleanor's love of historical research extended to family history. Through her genealogical research, Eleanor proved her qualification for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Eleanor loved to share her knowledge of local history. In informal conversations with family and friends, she revealed an ability to tie together the various strands of the history of the entire Hampton Roads area. However, whenever anyone suggested that she write a book and share this knowledge, she said it was for family and close friends only. It was knowledge she acquired in the course of simply living her life in the Hampton Roads area at a crucial juncture in its history.

In 1966, Eleanor and her family moved from Churchland to the Great Bridge Area of Chesapeake. While continuing her historical research and raising her now teenaged daughters, Eleanor (along with Charles) developed an interest in sailing and boating.

By the early 1970s, Eleanor and Charles were sufficiently skilled in boating that they

joined Flotilla 53 of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. With Charles as captain and Eleanor as first mate, the couple spent large portions of their free time patrolling the local waterways for the Coast Guard Auxiliary. During that time, they helped many inexperienced boaters out of trouble. Eleanor often told the story of the time she and Charles rescued a man whose boat ran aground in the section of the Indian River that flowed past their home on Kemp Lane, where they lived from 1971 until 1987. While looking out the window of their sunroom with binoculars, Eleanor and Charles spotted the man in his boat across the river. They got into the dinghy they kept tied to the pier behind their house, rowed over to the man, and asked if they could be of assistance. The man looked down at them in their little boat and asked, "What can you do?" Eleanor and Charles replied, "We can tell you what to do." Following Eleanor and Charles' instructions, the man was quickly able to rescue himself from his predicament.

In 1987, Eleanor moved to Westminster-Canterbury on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach.

Until shortly before her death, she actively contributed to the community life at her final home. For many years, she was Westminster-Canterbury's photographer. In this capacity, she compiled many scrapbooks that captured the vibrancy of life at Westminster-Canterbury. She sang in the church choir, and also loved to knit and play word games.

Eleanor's heart always remained in Chesapeake. Shortly after husband's death, she established the Charles B. Cross, Jr. Citizenship Award to be presented annually to a graduating senior from one of Chesapeake's public high schools. In Eleanor's words, the award is intended for "the little guy" ("guy" in an all-inclusive sense) who contributes to the betterment of the community with "integrity and honor."