On her own

Virginia Pilcher Provence, pushing 90 at the time, went on her own to the Baptist World Alliance's Centennial Congress in Birmingham, England, in the summer of 2005. She investigated and learned that dorm rooms were available at a college. She found local transportation. She made the effort to navigate a strange city so that she could attend the Baptist meeting.

She is used to managing on her own. Following her retirement at age 70 as a Richmond social worker, she journeyed on her own initiative to attend an Elderhostel tour of the Holy Land and Egypt. She went swimming (or just floating) in the Dead Sea as well as the Sea of Galilee. Her father had her taking swimming lessons at age 9 and she has been enjoying the water ever since. Even today, at age 92, she swims twice a week and credits exercise for “being in such good shape.”

As a widow, she lives alone. Her son is in England and her daughter in North Carolina. She keeps in touch with both of them through frequent telephone calls. And she stays busy in the activities of Patterson Avenue Baptist Church where she teaches an adult Sunday school class.

Virginia Provence's life has been linked to Baptist life. She grew up among the Pilchers of Petersburg, a dynamic Virginia Baptist family. Her uncle, Fred Pilcher, was a chief mover behind the development of the Virginia Baptist Foundation. Her grandfather, John Mason Pilcher, was one of the best known ministers in the South. He served three terms as president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and was elected vice-president of the Southern Baptist Convention. From 1880-1908, he was the head of the Sunday School and Bible Board of the BGAV. He is credited with organizing some 67 churches.

An old photograph of a Pilcher family reunion in 1924 shows the white-bearded patriarch surrounded by many descendants. (He and his wife had 12 children.) In front of the old man on a small table is a large family Bible. At his feet is Virginia, with long curls, at age 8. Grandfather died a few months after the photograph was taken. By now, everyone in the photograph, including her other young cousins of the 1920s, has gone. She alone remains.

Virginia Provence is blessed with a sound mind, sharp wit and sensible ways. Although her television is on the blink, she finds plenty to occupy her time and interest, including reading and keeping in touch with family and friends. She stays young by cultivating friendships with younger generations. The younger folks enjoy her stories and her contagious laughter which punctuates nearly every story.

She graduated from Longwood College in '38 and headed to the WMU Training School in Louisville, Ky., where she met a Southern Seminary student, I. Erfurt Provence Jr., of Texas. The couple married in June 1942 and Erfurt entered his first pastorate on a field in Caroline County which included Salem and Mt. Hermon Baptist churches. It was their first experience in the countryside. “Erfurt had never made a fire in his life,” laughs Virginia, “and the parsonage had a woodstove in every room. He had to learn to chop wood, make a fire and take care of hens.”

The Salem Woman's Missionary Union had “showered” the young couple with hens. Erfurt had to feed them, gather their eggs and prepare them for the table. While preparing for the ministry, he had worked in the seminary kitchen cleaning chickens. It proved to be as practical training as homiletics!

Virginia remembers walking across the pasture to the home where she got milk. “I always watched to see where the cows were gathering and went out of my way to avoid them.”

From the country, the couple moved to Falmouth, the town across the river from Fredericksburg, where he was pastor at a time when the Baptist church was still located in a small building. During his tenure, he led the church to purchase land for the present building.

Sometime in 1949, Ralph Winders, the head of student ministry for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, contacted Provence regarding student work at Virginia Tech. Erfurt made the trip to Blacksburg only to discover that the board had secured merely a small office for the student worker and had no facility for students. Initially he turned down the offer, insisting that a student center needed to be provided. About six months later, the offer was repeated along with the news that a student center had been secured.

The couple went to Blacksburg to pioneer campus ministry work among Virginia Baptists. The student center turned out to be a filthy, old vacant house. The students pitched in to clean the place and the house became a proper BSU. “My job,” says Virginia, “was to cook supper on Sunday evenings for all those students and sometimes we had 100 for supper.”

Erfurt became affectionately known as “Doc” to several generations of college students. He envisioned a student center as “a home away from home” for students. He soon offered Training Union and started a student chorus.

For 17 years, Erfurt and Virginia Provence gave steady guidance to college students. A debilitating illness forced Erfurt to take early retirement and the couple moved to Richmond in 1966. They joined Ginter Park Baptist Church in Richmond's Northside, where Virginia had cousins. Only in later years and while on her own did she move her membership to Patterson Avenue Baptist Church, which is nearer her West End home.

When the couple's son, Stanton, went to college, she felt the need to work. As a social worker, her territory included Richmond's Church Hill, and she soon learned the needs of many clients. Out on her own in the world of work, she managed. As a long-time widow, she has managed. She continues to be full of spunk and independence. Those are qualities associated with the Pilchers.

Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.