by James A. Bacon
I was saddened to hear of the passing of Roxane Gatling Gilmore of pancreatic cancer. She is best known to Virginians as a former first lady, wife of former Governor Jim Gilmore. She was also known to students of classical history as a professor of classics at Randolph Macon College, where she taught Latin, Women in Ancient Literature, Roman History, Greek History, Epic Poetry, and Roman Britain. Her name, Roxane, suitably enough was that of the Bactrian princess whom Alexander the Great took as a wife.
I knew Roxane at the University of Virginia where we palled around in the Young Americans for Freedom and the Jefferson Society Literary and Debating Society. YAF was no more popular on the Grounds then than it is today, but she was a principled and passionate conservative even as a young woman.
I was shy and terrified of public speaking, which was a major drawback for anyone participating in The Jefferson Society. To become members, probationers had to give an oration to the group. I can’t even recall what I spoke about. I’m sure the speech was terrible — I knew from early on that I had no future as a politician. What I do remember a half century later is Roxane’s speech.
She hailed from the City of Suffolk, which was the county seat of Nansemond County. She spoke eloquently in support of a merger of city and county, a forerunner of similar consolidations by Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. She knew her facts and delivered them wonderfully. Her speech was far, far better than mine. I was impressed.
As it turned out, while in graduate school at UVA, she met a law school student by the name of Jim Gilmore. They got married, and the rest is Virginia history.
Roxane and I maintained contact only sporadically in the years that followed, but I remember her with great fondness and respect. It is a blessed thing to reach my fairly advanced age, but it fills me with melancholy to hear of old friends passing. I can only hope that she was able to endure the travails of her illness free of pain and angst.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.