Constance Fox Ingles of Gloucester, departed this life on Sept. 14, 2012.

She was born in Seattle, Wash., on Dec. 10, 1920. She was a young girl during the Depression. She never forgot the financial hardships that she witnessed during that time.

Connie was home schooled by her mother through grade school. She began playing the piano at a very young age. She attended high school at Annie Wright Seminary, Tacoma, Wash. She then attended Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont. She said she spent the entire first year at Bennington sitting on a radiator to try to keep warm. She graduated Bennington College at age 18 in June of 1939.

Connie was a talented pianist. She obtained a master of arts degree in music from Converse College, Spartanburg, S.C., in 1941. In the 1950s she studied with John Powell, a noted pianist, in Richmond, Va. In the 1970s she taught piano to many young people in Gloucester. She played the organ at Abingdon Episcopal Church for many years when Howard Mueller was the preacher. Many people who worked at White Marsh Plantation and many guests were treated to Connie playing works of Chopin, Schubert, and the like.

Connie married William Ingles in 1942. The two of them made their home at White Marsh Plantation in 1948. At that time there was no Coleman Bridge. Route 17 was a two-lane concrete highway that was lightly traveled. Gloucester was very rural.

They raised five children, Mary Draper Ingles, William Ingles, McClanahan Ingles, Nathaniel Burwell Ingles and Breckenridge Ingles. William Ingles commuted to Washington where he was considered an expert on labor relations. He was a strict disciplinarian. He was home on weekends. The rules of the house were strictly enforced on weekends, but not so much during the week. During the week Connie had primary responsibility for running a household with five active children.

Connie, Lucy Rhoads and Diddy Morck were instrumental in organizing the Gloucester County Day School, which later became Ware Academy. She was an active member of the Garden Club of Virginia. She was a member of the committee responsible for restoration of Abingdon Church.

Connie was fun to be with. She enjoyed a glass of wine or two or three. She was an engaging conversationalist. A Salem cigarette, a cup of coffee and a telephone call to her friend Teen Martin were part of her morning routine after she had sent her children off to school. A mint julep or two with mint picked from the ditch bank was a tradition when electrical power was disrupted by a summer thunderstorm, a not infrequent occurrence in past years. She loved it when her children brought their high school or college friends home. Many of those friends continued to visit for years.

The Ingles family expresses gratitude to the many friends who were so good to Connie in recent years, her goddaughter, her good friend from Oklahoma, her friend Linda, her friend Sally from Maryland, and the many others who visited her frequently at Gloucester House.

The Ingles family expresses its gratitude to Sanders Assisted Living and to Gloucester House and their staffs for the professional and compassionate care that was afforded to Connie in her final years.

Services will be private.

In memory of our mother it is suggested that contributions be made to the Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society, P.O. Box 385, Gloucester, Va. 23061.

Arrangements by Hogg Funeral Home and Crematory, Gloucester Point.