Louise Whipple

1946 - 2024

Louise Whipple

January 21, 1946 - July 30, 2024

Whipple, Louise Stuart Tabb, born January 21, 1946, and known to many as LouLou, died July 30, 2024, in Crozet, VA. She is survived by her husband, Fred Rutledge Whipple, Jr.; her brother, Randolph Porter Tabb, Jr. (Patricia); her sister-in-law, Sue Whipple Hecht; her children, Laura Randolph Edge Kottkamp (Nathan) and James Brannen Edge, III (Melinda); two stepsons, David Rutledge Whipple (Sara) and Robert Whipple (Stephanie); two nieces, Ashley Glenn Tabb Boyles (Andy) and Anne Randolph Tabb Reveley (Everett); her godson, George Hall Sebren, Jr.; and her four grandchildren, Alice Taliaferro Lear Kottkamp, Edwin August Shields Kottkamp, James Brannen Edge, IV, and Porter Sidney Edge. She is predeceased in death by her parents, Marjorie Pugh Tabb and Randolph Porter Tabb, and her mischievous aunt, Louise Pugh Williams.

Louise Stuart grew up in Richmond's Glenburnie neighborhood with childhood friends the Louthans and attended nearby St. Giles Presbyterian Church and Westhampton School. Early on, she loved any cat. Her summers were spent at camp, swimming, and in antics with her Pugh, Tabb, and Williams cousins in Richmond, Newport News, Williamsburg, Goshen Pass, and Staunton. She graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School where she was selected for Girls State and received the Cutler May award as a senior for her character, intelligence, service, and leadership.

While at Mary Baldwin College, she played field hockey, chaired the Honor Court, and met lifelong friends and roommates Nancy Culpeper Bell, Susan Kelley Schallhorn, and Judy Smith. While in college, she studied abroad in Bruchsal, Germany, which ignited a love of travel and foreign languages. An English major, she savored words and syntax; she particularly admired Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat, Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. As a senior, she received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan national award, which is bestowed upon a college senior for leadership, attitude, scholarship, and athleticism.

Despite her achievements, she was never boastful or proud. Her quiet confidence and self-possession attracted others. Her trademark trustworthiness and kindness are evident in her grandsons' demeanors.

Following one year of working at Harvard Medical School in Boston, she moved to Manhattan and worked for the publisher Charles Scribner as an editor of book jackets. She attended Manhattanville College; after earning a Master's in Teaching, she taught English in Scarsdale, NY, before returning to Richmond, VA, in the early 1970's with her former husband, James B. Edge, Jr.

She delighted in being a citizen. Beginning in the late 1970's, she championed the Richmond Public Schools and helped establish the first PTA at Mary Munford School. As a member of First Presbyterian Church of Richmond, she served as the librarian and was a Circle member. She was an alumna of Leadership Metro Richmond, member of the Junior League, president of the Alzheimer's Association, and the ne plus ultra "I can laminate anything" coordinator for multiple volunteer organizations. She began teaching English as a Second Language in the late 1980's and continued until her retirement in 2012.

Relationships with classmates, neighbors, colleagues, church members, community members and her children's friends were revered; she kept these connections close through humorous calls, letters, emails and acts of thoughtfulness. Whether conversing with castle guards in Scotland, asking directions during Il Palio in Italy, seeking cats in Nova Scotia, or comforting a newly immigrated student, her natural disposition was to welcome, listen, and befriend. She was a founder of her weekly neighborhood Bridge Club, a spouse in Bucks Club, and right wing on the old-lady hockey team ("no longer skilled, just plain vicious").

Holidays and rituals were celebrated through her inimitable wit and energy. She poured her creativity into Halloween costumes, Christmas ornaments, Easter Egg Hunts, and acting as a ghostwriter for household pets. She resolutely did not enter ocean water until August 1st to avoid being cold. She looked forward to her annual winter shopping trip to New York with besties where they lunched at Le Perigord. She held sacred her Boxing Day luncheon with friends. She and Fred reserved Saturday mornings at Aunt Sarah's Pancake House before they browsed Estate Sales.

With the exception of making Watergate salad and an annual birthday cake, she avoided cooking and was an early adopter of the microwave, drive-throughs, Lean Cuisines, Pop-Tarts, and Ukrop's prepared foods. She occasionally made batches of Lulu Paste at Christmas; we advise discarding any jars you may still have in your kitchen. She stored shoes and New Yorker back issues, among other things, in her unused oven. She detested all things sticky.

A voracious reader, she relished discussing books in the NoNameBookClub and flipped immediately to the end of most reading material to reduce her worry over surprise plots. Unfortunately, she was predisposed to dog-ear and tear interesting articles out of magazines that did not belong to her. She legitimately owned an alarming number of stylish clothes and shoes, however, and she passed this genetic disposition along to both granddaughters.

As city mouse and country mouse, she and Fred divided their decades together between Richmond and Brownsburg, VA. At the farm, she cleverly named hundreds of cows, walked her long-legged pace through the pastures to and from the barns, and spent evenings on the front porch with her love watching the sun set behind Jump Mountain. The commute conveniently allowed her to frequent Marshall's and T.J. Maxx in both the Richmond and Staunton markets.

Her mornings began with dessert to ensure her days always included one positive moment. Her eventual refusal of chocolate was symptomatic of her Alzheimer's, which claimed her father thirty-five years earlier. Until the end of life, however, she enjoyed fun, laughter, and making others smile with a sly side eye or a "Yay, baby."

Our thanks to Theresa, Princess, and the staff at the Lodge at Old Trail in Crozet. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to honor the care shown to LouLou by Hospice of the Piedmont.

A memorial service will be held at First Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA, on August 24, 2024, at 12 p.m.