Sarah Poole Batkins, the first student secretary (now campus minister) among Virginia Baptists, died March 8 in Richmond. She was 91.
In September 1941, Batkins was employed as a joint venture of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and Virginia Woman's Missionary Union and served at State Teachers College of Farmville (now Longwood University) from 1941-43. By her outstanding work, she modeled the role of a Baptist campus minister and proved the need for creating campus minister positions across Virginia.
She resigned in 1943 to marry John Batkins, who served as a Baptist minister for churches in the Roanoke and Richmond areas. From 1978-93, she was a hostess at Lakewood Manor in Richmond where she made her home. She had no immediate survivors. A memorial service was held at Lakewood Manor on March 15.