Priscilla May Blosser-Rainey

We are very sad to share that our mother, Priscilla May Blosser-Rainey, passed away on Thursday, September 25, 2025: her oldest son, Will Loew-Blosser, and niece. Sylvia Mehegan provided comfort in her last hours. She was 95 years old. Priscilla was the daughter of Joseph Owen and Pauline Fawley Beard, and a descendant of the Beard-Geil-Wenger family. She graduated from Harrisonburg High School in June 1947, where she played on the basketball team and played trumpet in the band. She graduated from Converse College, Spartanburg, SC, with a degree in English in 1951. She married Henry Gabriel Blosser, a particle physicist, in 1951, and in 1974 married her second husband, Gerald Rainey, a NASA engineer. Priscilla raised four children: William, Emmanuel, Gabe, and Margo. She would routinely pack the kids up and travel from Michigan to Virginia to visit family. If the car broke down, she would pop the hood and fix it. If the local hiking club were having a hike, she would pack up her 4-day-old son, Gabe Blosser, and join them, or put her daughter, Margo, in a basket to be carried on the trail. Priscilla started a weaving and spinning business in the 1970s and was a pioneer in the emerging modern-day textile craft industry. The advertisement for her company, The River Farm, can be found in early editions of the national magazine Handwoven. The River Farm workshops offered instruction in both spinning and weaving. She was a talented fiber artist and could spin two strands of linen simultaneously. Her overshot weaving was impeccable; she never made a mistake. Priscilla played French horn in the Timberville Band, trumpet for the Spartanburg, SC symphony, and Alpine Horn with the Staunton, Virginia Area players. She was a member of the Linville Creek Church of the Brethren and a member of the Southern Highland Guild. She was preceded in death by beloved siblings, brothers Joseph Owen Beard, Jr., Daniel Jacob Beard, and sister Mary Virginia Mehegan and grandson Branum T Loew-Blosser. Priscilla is survived by her children, Margo Blosser, Gabe Blosser, Emanuel Blosser, William Loew-Blosser, six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. Her family and friends will deeply miss her. A memorial service will be held at Linville Creek Church of the Brethren, located in Broadway, VA, on Saturday, October 25, at 2:00 p.m. Coffee and cookies will be served after the service. Instead of flowers, the family suggests that memorial contributions may be made to the Plains District Memorial Museum in Timberville, Virginia, (https://plainsmuseum.com/), the Southern Highland Guild (https://southernhighlandguild.org/), or the Linville Creek Church of the Brethren (http://www.linvillecreek.org/). Online condolence may be sent to the family at www.grandlefuneralhome.com To send a flower arrangement in memory of Priscilla May Blosser-Rainey, please click here to visit our sympathy store. Memorial Donation