Biography

Mary Virgina Sargent (who went by Virginia) spent her entire life in rural Caroline County, Virginia, where she met her husband Junius and they raised a large family together. Due to their distance from organized congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Virginia mostly practiced her faith at home. Nonetheless, through her example, her husband eventually converted and at least three of their children also followed her into the faith. As one of her daughter’s recalled, “all of us more or less came up with a lot of Mormon in us.”[1]

Virginia was born on 22 December 1893 in Golansville, Caroline County, Virginia, the fifth of John and Nellie Sargent's seven children.[2] On 19 August 1906, when she was twelve years old, Thomas Edwin Ricks III from Rexburg, Idaho, baptized her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a creek near Golansville with seven other family members.[3] Ricks then also confirmed her a member of the Church.[4]

Virginia eventually met Junius Key, the son of a local farmer, and the young couple fell in love. Virginia gave birth to their first daughter on 28 March 1913 and then traveled to Washington D.C. to get married three months later.[5] The young couple settled into life in rural Virginia where they had both been raised. Junius worked as a farm laborer and then earned a living working for the Richmond, Fredricksburg, and Potomac Railroad while Virginia worked as a housewife.[6] They raised a large family together which grew to include twelve children. According to their son Raymond, the family moved from Golansville to Hewlett in Caroline County, where his father eventually took over the “old homestead” on which he had been raised. Raymond recalled that “we had cows, horses, chickens, hogs, and pet rabbits.” All the children had chores in caring for the farm but Raymond still “enjoyed country life very much.”[7]

In 1923, Virginia contracted a severe illness and her family feared for her life. While Junius left to find a doctor, Latter-day Saint elders arrived unannouneced and gave Virginia a blessing aimed at restoring her health. When her husband returned, he found his wife laughing on the side of the bed, testifying, and preaching.[8] She turned to her husband and said, "I told you all I needed were the elders; all I need were the Mormons." Surprised by what he perceived to be a miraculous healing, Junius said to the missionaries, "I don't know what you all got. But whatever it is, give me some too."[9] He joined the Church of Jesus Christ later that year.[10]

There was no organized congregation of Latter-day Saints in proximity to the Key family home in Hewlett/Ruther Glen and as a result Virginia practiced her faith in private. Virginia's daughter, Virginia K. Wright, remembered that her mother fasted the first Sunday of every month, even as she prepared a full breakfast for everyone else. She recalled in 1986, "I’ve never seen her drink a drop of coffee, tea, or alcoholic beverage, or smoke a cigarette. I’ve never heard her curse.”[11]

Even though Virginia worshiped every Sunday at a Baptist church in Ruther Glen, she remained committed to her Latter-day Saint faith. As her daughter recalled, “Although there wasn’t any church for Mama to go to as she raised us up, we knew about the Mormon church.” Virginia’s sister Novella Gibson who had moved to Washington D.C. helped Virginia remain connected to Latter-day Saint teachings. Viginia’s daughter remembered that “Aunt Novella would send Relief Society manuals, Sunday School manuals, and Church News. Aunt Novella would save them; when she’d come down, she’d bring a stack of them. They may be three or four months old or longer. Mama would sit down and read everything that happened. That way she actually kept up with the Church and what was happening. It would have been much easier for her to stray, but she didn’t.”[12]

Virginia also did what she could to pass on her devotion to her children. “She never stopped telling us about the Mormons and the Mormon church. She never would try to force it on us,” her daughter recalled, “but if anything would ever happen, she wanted us to get in touch with the Mormons.” As a result, at least three of Virginia’s children, Raymond Keys, Ethel Kelley, and Virginia Wright, joined the faith as adults.[13]

Virginia was remarkably adept at not only managing a large family, but also at managing her personal finances. She thus became a source of financial help for both Black and white neighbors. "When something happened and we needed a dollar, we could always go there and we'd get it,” her daughter recalled. “A lot of people in the community would borrow from her, white and colored. They wouldn't come for five or ten dollars; they would come for fifty or a hundred dollars. She would always go in that house somewhere and bring it out there. But she just lived a plain normal life like normal people do.” Her daughter attributed such success to frugality, hard work, home canning, and principles she learned from the church. “We made our own vegetable soup. In the wintertime we’d kill hogs. She would always can up all that meat. We never had to go to the store. I guess that’s how she happened to have a lot of extra money because we canned most of the stuff and we raised it ourselves. . . . This was something that the Church had taught them,” her daughter said.[14]

Junius died from lung cancer and congestive heart failure in 1969.[15] Nine years later, Virginia died on 21 September 1978 of cardiovascular disease. Like her husband, she is buried at the Jericho Baptist Church Cemetery in Ruther Glen where she had worshipped on Sundays.[16] Nonetheless, her daughter stated, “Up until the day she died, she lived a Mormon life.”[17]

By Joseph Stuart

Primary Sources

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Record of Members Collection. Southern States Mission, Virginia District. Microfilm 1995. Family History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Keys, Raymond W. Oral interview by Alan Cherry, 14 October 1986. Transcript. Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Oral History Project. L. Tom Perry Special Collections. Harold B. Lee Library. Brigham Young University. Provo, Utah.

“Marriage Licenses.” The Washington Times (Washington, D.C.), 8 July 1913, 13.

“Sargent.” Presiding Bishopric stake and mission census, 1914-1935. C.R. 4 311. Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.

United States. 1930 Census. Virginia, Caroline County, Madison District.

United States. 1940 Census. Virginia, Caroline County, Madison District.

United States. Virginia. Caroline County. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Junius Key. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC.

Virginia. State Board of Health. Bureau of Vital Statistics. Certificates of Death. File no. 8833. Registered number 12, Mary Ellen Key. Virginia State Archives, Richmond, Virginia.

Virginia. State Board of Health. Bureau of Vital Statistics. Certificates of Death. File no. 69-014255. Registered number 1636, Junius Kee. Virginia State Archives, Richmond, Virginia.

Virginia. State Board of Health. Bureau of Vital Statistics. Certificates of Death. File no. 78-029753. Registered number 142, Mary Virginia Kee. Virginia State Archives, Richmond, Virginia.

Washington. District of Columbia. Marriages, 1830-1921. Jamious Key and Mary V. Sargent, 7 July 1913.

Wright, Virginia K. Oral interview by Alan Cherry, 14 October 1986. Transcript. Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Oral History Project. L. Tom Perry Special Collections. Harold B. Lee Library. Brigham Young University. Provo, Utah.

Secondary Sources

Embry, Jessie L. Black Saints in a White Church: Contemporary African-American Mormons . Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994.

Key, Mary V. FindAGrave.com.

Documents

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