One of the perks of being a newspaper reporter is one has the opportunity to meet some pretty terrific people. A question often asked is “who’s the most famous person you’ve ever interviewed?”
For me, fame isn’t just measured by the number of times someone’s name has been in the headlines, the political office they hold or the amount of money they have.
Importance is what that person means to their community and how they spread kindness and knowledge to make their corner of the world better.
One of the most famous and most humble in our midst is Ms. Virginia Scarborough. A few years ago, I had the good fortune to interview Virginia, as she asked me to call her, for a story about the burial site of Deaf Smith. Legend had it that Smith was buried in Richmond but nobody knew exactly where he was buried.
Immediately, I wanted to track the story down. I started at the Fort Bend Museum, and a volunteer told me if I really wanted to know, I’d talk to Virginia Scarborough.
When the third person I asked about Deaf Smith told me to ask Virginia, I knew I’d better call, and she invited me to come by her home and visit.
She greeted me at the door with a smile and we sat down at her kitchen table and chatted over cookies.
Virginia believes Smith is buried somewhere in the middle of the street near the museum in downtown Richmond. She also thinks he might’ve been buried upside down, going out of the world in the same direction the Texas pioneer entered it.
I remember laughing at the way her eyes twinkled when she told the story. We also chatted about her involvement in Fort Bend County history, and I was amazed at the lengths to which Virginia went to searching for lost cemeteries.
She’s traipsed through meadows in mud boots, tracking down long-forgotten headstones. She said she once got chased out of a field by an angry bull, and she had to climb a fence in a hurry to get away from the angry bovine.
Virginia was past retirement age when she pulled off that trick.
It’s not often one comes across someone who’s thought of so highly, but after meeting Virginia, I know why. It’s not just her soft way of speaking that’s never condescending yet filled with information.
It’s not that she’s quoted in numerous history books.
It’s not even that Virginia’s family can trace their roots back to the Old 300, settlers who came to Fort Bend County with Stephen F. Austin or that a school is named after her late sister and educator, Antoinette Reading.
Perhaps it’s because Virginia’s been an instrumental source of knowledge for the Fort Bend Historical Commission and helped oversee the preservation of Morton Cemetery, the burial site of Jane Long and Mirabeau Lamar.
She has the credentials — she’s a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
Although those are all stellar reasons for being respected, the reason Virginia is such a treasure to Richmond and Fort Bend County is because she’s a genteel, gracious, humble and giving person whose intelligence and dedication to preserving the facts benefits all of us.
I’m extremely fortunate I’ve had the pleasure of visiting with Virginia. I hope one day she’ll invite me back and we can sit together at her kitchen table where I can once again fall under the enchantment of this gracious lady.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.