Mary Wakefield Buxton of Urbanna, Va., writer, author and retired educator, passed away on November 7, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. She was born in Vermilion, Ohio, of parents George Patterson and Mary Baldridge Wakefield in 1941 just several months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She graduated from Vermilion High School in 1959 and attended Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, eventually graduating with a BA in History from the College of William and Mary. She later earned a Master’s degree in Human Resource Development from George Washington University and did further graduate studies in 20th century English poetry at Oxford University in England.
Mary married Newport News native Chip Buxton in 1963 and spent the next two years of her life as a Navy officer’s wife during the Vietnam War including a one-year residence in Japan. She and her husband recently celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary. Mary traveled widely and wrote about her travel to many states and countries, including Japan, South Korea, Okinawa, Hawaii, Europe, Canada, South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands. She enjoyed a winter home in Naples, Florida, for more than 20 years.
Mary’s careers included teaching in Gloucester public schools, Trinity Lutheran School, and Key Business College in Newport News where she became the director of the evening college and assistant director of the day college. She and her husband moved to Urbanna in 1984. There she became a columnist at the Southside Sentinel for more than 40 years, along with publishing 15 books about love and life in Tidewater Virginia, including her two most popular books, “Help! I’m Being Held Captive in Virginia!” and “The Private War of William Styron.” Before the selling its paper mill in West Point, Va., Chesapeake Corporation commissioned Mary to write the history of the mill from its founding in 1918. The book, “Bringing in the Wood,” was published in 1999.
Considering herself fundamentally a humorist, she also wrote about very serious subjects, being one of the first opinion writers in the Commonwealth to call for opening Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and civic clubs like Rotary to qualified women. She felt blessed to be able to live in Urbanna and write about life and the people she loved. Although she started writing as a feminist, writing in the cause of opening up more opportunities in society to women, she soon expanded her writing to work to improve opportunities for all people.
Mary founded many clubs, organizations and groups, such as York River Garden Club which she served as first president; Gloucester-Mathews Republican Woman’s Club, and Middlesex Poets. She facilitated the University of Chicago Great Books for 10 years in Middlesex County. She also started the Rivers Club, Night Riders Dinner Club, and several luncheon groups. Mary was actively involved with Dog Friends which evolved into the creation of Middlesex Pet Friends for Life, which she helped incorporate and served as its first president. She was a charter member of the Middlesex Rotary Club; there, her committee on community affairs established the annual “Pride of Middlesex” award. She loved her family, neighbors, friends and all her loyal readers of “One Woman’s Opinion” in the Southside Sentinel.
Mary is survived by her husband, Joseph Thomas (Chip) Buxton III; her children, Ann Elizabeth (Liz) Buxton of Burgess, Va., and George Patterson Wakefield (Wake) Buxton of Gloucester, Va., and five grandchildren, William Walker Campbell of Lexington, Ky., Elizabeth Hayden Holycross of Baltimore, Md., Joseph T. Buxton IV, Frederick William Wakefield Buxton and Samuel Clayton Buxton. She is also survived by her two sisters, Alice Wakefield (R. Angus Murdoch) of Bena, Va., and Georgia Wakefield Huger of Crozet, Va.
She adored her beloved pets, and never met a dog that she didn’t love at first sight. She also fed feral cats when they showed up at her door hungry for a handout along with squirrels, birds, raccoons and even an occasional possum and who knows what else. Mary loved classical music, poetry and Shakespeare and she was not afraid to use her pen to boost certain causes that offered more opportunities for her fellow man. She intensely disliked pretense, hypocrisy, snobbery, self-importance, and exclusionary groups and often wrote comedy poking fun at such human behavior.
Visitation will be at the family home at 290 Kent Street, Urbanna, on Monday, November 17 from 4-6 p.m. Her funeral will be held at Christ Church Parish, Saluda, Va., on Tuesday, November 18 at 1 p.m. Those interested in making a contribution in her name may give to the Black History Fund in care of the Middlesex County Museum, P.O. Box 121, Saluda, Va. 23149 or Middlesex Pet Friends for Life, P.O. Box 145, Saluda, Va. 23149.
Faulkner Funeral Homes, Bristow-Faulkner Chapel is assisting the family.