The origin story of The Virginia opal ring

Before I tell you about Virginia who inspired this ring, I’d like to share a story about her children – Ginger, Rob, and Rosie. When Virginia passed, she left her youngest daughter Rosie an opal ring with a diamond halo. This special ring was gifted to Virginia from her stepmother, Marion, and father, Mac, for her 21st birthday. What comes next is something their brother Rob has never forgotten – Rosie’s house was burglarized and her precious memento stolen.  

Rob was determined to remake the ring referencing his memory and an oil painting of Virginia wearing her ring that hangs in his living room. He surprised Rosie with the remake and while nothing can ever replace the original, this ring holds new meaning jam-packed with love shared between siblings.

The woman who inspired the ring

Virginia was a formidable woman with a great sense of humor. She grew up in LaGrange, Georgia and was the second youngest of five siblings – Tudor, Mac, Bill, and Jim. Virginia graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1942, where she was a cheerleader and acquired the nickname “Li’l Duck” because her older brother who played on the baseball team had the nickname “Duck”. She came of age during WWII and, like many women in her generation, she never talked about the war. Her college boyfriend, Sid Hix, went on to serve as a captain of a Patrol Torpedo boat in the Pacific. Decades after she lost him in the war, she learned that his boat was the only one in the squadron with a name – Li’l Duck.  

Virginia went on to meet and marry another hero of WWII, Robert Hammond, who served as a captain in the 2nd Armored Division, a tank division known as “Hell on Wheels” by the Americans, “Roosevelt’s Butchers” by the Germans, and “The Crazy Division” by the French. Together they had three children – Ginger, Robert, and Rosie. Tragically, Virginia lost her husband too soon because of a heart attack at only 44 years old.  

Virginia remarried her neighbor, Nat Slaughter, who was also an Army veteran and became a stepmom to three children – Nat, Bob, and Jim. In many respects, Virginia’s family felt like The Brady Bunch, two widows coming together to form a blended family with six children. She went on to live a full life until the age of 83 as an active member of the Episcopal church and investing her free time in Bridge, needlepoint, and friendships. She was enthralled with NASA and kept a meticulous scrapbook of any article about the space race that she could lay her eyes on.  

When asked to describe Virginia, her daughter Rosie remembered, “laughing with her was fun,” while her son Rob joked, “she wouldn’t want us to write how we would describe her.” All her children recall her most heeded advice, “Tend to your own little red wagon.”