Betty Litton Kilgour's Obituary
After a bout with pneumonia that left her too weak to recover, Betty Kilgour, 90 years old, bid her family and friends good-bye and with faith and love breathed her last breath at home with her daughter, Jennifer, on Thursday, July 22nd. Her son, Ken, had just dreamed of Betty dressed in a natty yellow coat, with matching shoes, ready to depart.
Betty Gene Litton Kilgour was born at home in Dot, Virginia on April 20, 1931, the first of three daughters of Kenneth Eugene Litton and Phoebe Fugate Litton. Her father, Kenneth, was a cattleman, and her mother, Phoebe, was a school administrator and homemaker. When the Great Depression forced the sale of breeding stock in southwest Virginia, Betty's father undertook the management of Highland Farm, Loudoun County, where Betty spent most of her formative years. Leaving home, she graduated from Mary Washington College, briefly taught school, married a newly commissioned Army officer, Jordan McIlhany Kilgour of Purcellville, Virginia, and moved to Heidelberg, Germany, where her oldest daughter, Virginia, was born. Jordan, Jennifer, Kenneth, and Edwin followed during posts to Ft. Belvoir, Virginia; the University of Illinois; and Ft. Richardson, Alaska.
A craftswoman at heart, Betty loved to read, and she mastered knitting and sewing at an early age. Expressing her faith with her heart and hands, Betty sought to demonstrate the love and redeeming power of Christ wherever she was, including Lucketts Elementary School, J. Lupton Simpson Middle School and Loudoun County High School, where her administrative role was small but her impact could be life changing.
Until November of 2020, Betty lived in her own condominium in Leesburg, but just in time for Thanksgiving she moved into the rooms waiting for her at Jennifer’s in Round Hill, not far from Kelton Farm, which her father had owned. The following July, she returned from a stay in the hospital to be attended at home by her children and Blue Ridge Hospice, dying peacefully in the early morning hours of July 22nd.
Of her immediate family, Betty is survived by her children, Virginia Elizabeth Kilgour (William Shulleeta), Jordan M. Kilgour, Jr.; Jennifer Leslie Kilgour Nix (Edward); Kenneth Litton Kilgour (Virginia Riggs Berno, remarried to Bruce Knarr); Edwin Wood Kilgour (Gina); granddaughters, Laura Nix Baker (Kristopher), Phoebe Virginia Kilgour (Nathan Toews), Jane Symonds Kilgour; great grandson, Peter Martin Toews, and sister, Sue Litton Lemon and her family. Betty’s former husband, Jordan, and her sister, Nancy Litton Lenher, preceded her in death.
Interment will be at Ebenezer Baptist Church Cemetery in Airmont, on Saturday, September 25th at 9:00 am. At 12:30 pm on the 25th the family will host a celebration of Betty’s life at the Rotary Pavilion in Franklin Farm Park in Purcellville.
Friends wishing to honor Betty’s life are encouraged to love as she loved and, in place of flowers, to make a contribution to the Loudoun Library Foundation of the Loudoun County Public Library, where she was considered a “super-user,” library.loudoun.gov/LLF, or to the Gideon ministry, https://www.gideons.org/.
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