G. Paul and Georgia Meadows at their golden wedding anniversary celebration in 1979.
Submitted Photo
Editor’s note: In honor of Black History Month, The Herald is featuring one influential African American from Botetourt County each week for the duration of the month of February.
Georgia Rucker Meadows, of Fincastle, was born on June 25, 1903 and died on September 25, 2001.
She was the daughter of the late Lucille Willis Rucker and Henry G. Rucker, both of Botetourt County. Her siblings, all of whom are deceased, included James Rucker, Archie Rucker, John Rucker, Mary Rucker Mann, and Janie Rucker Hunter.
On March 28, 1929, Meadows married G. Paul Meadows. She was a lifetime member of the Lapsley Run Baptist Church.
Meadows attended elementary school at Hughes Hill School, a one-room schoolhouse off US 220 between Fincastle and Eagle Rock. Because Botetourt County did not offer high school classes to blacks, she attended Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute (now called Virginia State University) in Petersburg and continued with college courses, earning an undergraduate degree in education in 1922. She was barely 18 when she graduated.
She achieved her master’s in education at Columbia University in New York, then attended the University of Virginia, Northwestern University in Illinois, and ultimately Harvard University in Massachusetts, where she worked on her Ph.D. in education.
Meadows taught school in Botetourt County for 48 years. She taught at Lignite School, a two-room schoolhouse on Craig Creek, Buchanan Elementary, which was also a two-room building that was located along the James River at the time, Central Academy School and Eagle Rock Elementary School. She taught generations of Botetourt County school children.
Her civic involvement included the following:
- Past Grand Worthy Matron of the Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star: Zeta Phi Theta and Phi Delta Kappa sororities
- Organizer of the first Women’s Auxiliary to the Valley Baptist Association in 1929
- President of Baptist State Convention
- Vice-president of the regional Total Action Against Poverty (TAP)
- Member of the board of directors of the area League of Older Americans (LOA)
- Organizer and past president of the Fincastle Senior Citizens Club
- Botetourt Improvement Association
- Women’s Auxiliary 144 of Veterans of Foreign Wars
- Lott Carey Foreign Mission Board
- Organized Presidential Council of the Valley Baptist Association
- Awarded Clubwoman of the Year in 1973 by the U.S. Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs
- President of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Deacons’ Conference of Southwest Virginia
Meadows was also an advocate for many causes, including civil rights, women’s rights, teachers’ salaries, senior citizens and low-income residents.
