Hazel Emily Raiford Rhodes, 92, widow of Jethro Gladstone Rhodes, passed away July 23, 2008. Born in Southampton County, she was one of eleven children of the late Lloyd Monroe and Mary Helen Joyner Raiford. A 1938 graduate of Norfolk General Hospital's School of Nursing, she was a nurse at Norfolk General during WWII. Mrs. Rhodes was a faithful member of Colosse Baptist Church.
Left to cherish her memory are her two daughters, Emily Ester Rhodes and Mary Michelle Rhodes; her son, Michael Gladstone Rhodes; sister, Margaret R. Shenberger and husband, Charlie, of Salem , VA; two brothers, Edmund Raiford and wife, Martha, of Virginia Beach and Merritt Raiford and wife, Mary Vaughan, of Courtland; brother-in-law, Johnnie Frank Wellons of Sedley and a host of nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by four sisters, Mary Frances Beaton, Dorothy Drake, Lucille Wellons and Ernestine Watkins and three brothers, L.M., Charles and Franklin "Monk" Raiford.
The funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in Wright Funeral Home with the Rev. Tim Webb officiating. Interment will follow in Colosse Cemetery. The family will receive friends today (Thursday) from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the funeral home and suggests memorials be made to Western Tidewater Mental Health Center, 404 Finney Ave., Suffolk, VA 23434.