Loving mother and grandmother Virginia Ann (Crewes) Schaub passed away suddenly at home in Oak Harbor on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, from heart failure.

She was born Virginia Ann Sutherland in Ettersburg, Calif., on Jan. 13, 1925, the youngest of nine children of Dora and Robert Sutherland.

Her parents operated a shake mill in the Redwoods of Northern California, and Virginia graduated from high school in Rio Dell, and then moved to San Francisco during World War II to work as a telephone operator.

She met Jim Crewes at a USO dance there and they were married soon after, just prior to Jim, a Navy CPO, being sent back out to war.

Together they raised four daughters throughout being stationed at Seattle; Honolulu, Hawaii; Alameda, Calif.; and Oak Harbor.

Virginia was a long-time member of the Oak Harbor Lutheran Church and the North Whidbey Riding Club, spending many hours helping at the North Whidbey Stampede, helping her husband with his business, Jim’s Garage, and being a devoted mother to four daughters, all of whom graduated from Oak Harbor High School.

In 1970, the winning Whidbey News-Times’ Mother’s Day letter contest for “My Mom is the Greatest” was penned by youngest daughter Bonnie in honor of her mother, then Virginia Crewes, which noted her vitality, her smile and her love of life.

That same year, the Seattle Times included their newly finished log home on Swantown Road in a Sunday pictorial spread, of which Virginia was very proud.

Virginia worked at the Whidbey Naval Air Station as a civil servant until her retirement in 1982.

After Virginia and Jim divorced, Virginia married Bob Schaub, a retired Navy Commander. They spent many years traveling and boating around the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean and overseas,until ill health prevented Bob from further travel. Virginia learned how to scuba dive after retiring and loved to dive in Baja and Florida.

Although dementia had dimmed her memory over the past few years, she was able to spend her last weeks of life visiting her beloved daughters and their families in both Oregon and Washington, and watching the Space Needle fireworks display on TV with her daughter Jamie, who cared for her along with granddaughter Tia Casimire in Oak Harbor.

Virginia was preceded in death by her parents, all eight siblings: brothers Robert, Ben and Ray, and sisters Helen, Dorothy, Florence, Frances and Barbara; her daughter Nance Dawn Jordan; and, recently, her husband Bob Schaub.

She is survived by her daughters Joyce (Hal) Pawson of Portland, Ore., Jamie (Gary) Boyer of Oak Harbor and Bonnie (Peter) Rice of Maple Valley, Wash.; nine grandchildren; and 20 great-grandchildren, as well as step-daughter Sandy Maurinas and her family in New York State.

A combined burial service for Virginia and Bob Schaub will be performed at the Tahoma National Cemetery in Covington, Wash., at a later date. Family and friends are encouraged to share memories and condolences in the Book of Memories hosted by Wallin Funeral Home at www.wallinfuneralhome.com