Martha Tetterton Guill

Martha Rose Tetterton Guill, 85, of Ashburn, VA passed away on Saturday, August 31, 2024, in the presence of her children Michael and Angela.

Martha Rose was born on March 28, 1937, in Rocky Mount, NC to parents Esther and Wilton, and older sister Jean. The family moved to Greenville, NC where Martha grew up surrounded by a loving, small, close-knit extended family and beloved housekeeper Maggie (who lived on, affectionately, through Martha’s stories), with a core group of what proved to be life-long friends.

Martha loved animals and always had pets, from gerbils to horses. One of whom, Red Top (a horse, not a gerbil), she irreverently rode around the ECU campus to the displeasure of the police and the chagrin of her father.

Martha earned her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from ECU. She had a penchant for adventure and wanted to see the world but was ineligible at the time to be an airline “stewardess” because she wore contact lenses. She did make it out of North Carolina nonetheless, and landed in Danville, VA to pursue her teaching career. There, she met her future husband, James “Jim” Guill on a blind date that had been set up by her landlady.

At the time, Jim was a poor college student at Virginia Tech (VPI), but home on a break, trying to make some money (he was using cardboard in his shoes because they had holes in their soles). Martha and Jim continued their long-distance courtship until he left a watermelon at her doorstep one morning, after having carved “will you marry me?” into it. They married in 1964 and began their life together in Richmond, VA where Jim was then attending law school and Martha was then teaching.

Martha eventually stopped teaching to rear (“It’s rear, NOT raise. You rear children, you raise goats” she’d say) her two children, Mike (Michael) and Angie (Angela). Jim went into private practice as a criminal defense attorney until 1980 when the family moved to Cincinnati after he became an Administrative Law Judge with the US Department of Labor. Jim knew Martha needed something to keep her busy and had more faith in her than she had in herself, so over the next 6 years he opened two retail stores for her to own and operate.

In 1986, the family (Jim) was transferred to Hampton, VA. With Mike off to college and Angie starting high school, Martha gave up the business world and returned to elementary school teaching. The following year, Jim was appointed Associate Chief Judge for the DOL, so he, Martha, and Angie moved to McLean, VA where Martha continued teaching.

1992 was a “moving” year for the Guills. Jim and Martha moved from McLean to Vienna, VA. Mike and his future wife, Terenia, moved to New Orleans, and Angie moved to New Mexico. Martha had the inexplicable insight to insist that the unfinished basement be finished. Jim argued against it as they were empty nesters with two guest rooms already. But, with Martha being Martha, she argued, “You never know when someone might need it!” So, the basement was finished, complete with the plushest padding and bounciest expanse of mauve-colored carpeting imaginable.

Brilliant insight, Martha had (for the finished basement, not so much for the carpet color). After 35 years of marriage, in 1999 Jim passed away from cancer. Angie had moved back, into the finished basement, from San Francisco where she was then living to help Martha during Jim’s last few months and stayed on to help her mom build a new life. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina upended the lives of Mike and Terenia and their two young children. Again, the finished basement proved its worth. It was now a place of refuge for a displaced family of four. Martha cherished this time with her family – from witnessing Mia Rose, her 8-month-old granddaughter, stand for the very first time and learn to “furniture-surf” to being able to take her young grandson, James, with her to school every day. For the rest of her life, Martha loved telling the stories of the drives to and from school with James and their talks about the horses and trucks along the way. After Mike’s family returned to New Orleans, the basement continued its purpose as a haven for a dear family friend who needed a new perch to rest upon for a bit.

Despite being devastated by Jim’s death, Martha found solace in family, teaching, and her friendships. Angie knew, however, that Martha missed having a companion and helped her set up a profile on an internet dating site. Martha embraced the new technology and met Jerry Bailey, whose daughters also had helped him set up an online dating profile. They married December 30, 2009, and Martha joked that it had been an arranged marriage – arranged by their daughters. They moved into a new, “55 plus” community, as she’d say, and were surrounded by active, vibrant neighbors. Martha retired from teaching at age 70 and finally was able to pursue her longing for travel and adventure with Jerry, discovering a new delight in river cruising throughout Europe.

Martha’s adoration of children and love of learning new things grew stronger with age. She missed teaching, and her nurturing nature found a new outlet in growing and tending to plants and flowers. During the cold months, she’d research flowers and plants, learning how to grow them. She diligently tended to her tiny seeds, turning unused bathtubs and the garage into makeshift grow-houses. She doted on those seedlings, giving them pep rallies to encourage them to grow and prepare for their full pageantry in the warm months. No longer able to nurture and encourage the potential in small children, and delight in seeing them grow over the years, she had transferred her love of “growing” into plants.

And with that love, she filled every space possible, inside and out, with flowers and plants. She welcomed the challenge of rehabilitating plants that had failed to thrive in the charge of others (namely, Angie). Every windowsill was filled with something she was trying to propagate. African Violets were a favorite. She kept seeds from every kind of produce to see if she could grow a new generation of the old thing. She’d keep the bottoms of celery hearts and the seeds of avocados and stick them all in water. If there was a potential for creating new life out of an old one that was about to be discarded, she’d give it her best try.

Martha had also taken up crafting in the form of filling unusual bottles or decanters with string lights – a craft that Jerry helped with by going to restaurants with her to dine at the bars and make friends with the bartenders and/ or Maître d’, to ask if they’d save some of the interesting liquor and wine bottles when they were about to be thrown away. Jerry then was put on craft-production duty and drilled the holes in the bottles so Martha could fill and decorate them. They participated in a number of craft-shows, but she gave away the vast majority of her bottles to people she loved.

Martha never met a stranger in her life, and her lifelong enjoyment of throwing parties along with her gift of gab brought neighbors and strangers together in unexpected ways that led to treasured friendships throughout her life. This was just as true for her and Jerry in their 14 years of marriage as it was in her high school years. Her last two parties were celebrations of her 85th birthday, and she was ecstatic to see so many friends. Daily phone calls and visits with friends and family, and the afternoon impromptu get-togethers with neighbors that convened on Martha and Jerry’s back porch had become Martha’s most eagerly anticipated part of every day.

The Covid-19 pandemic shut-down followed by debilitating health conditions dominated the last few years of her life and put an end to adventure-chasing travel, but nothing could slow her novelty-seeking, treasure-hunting nature down. So, when she was no longer able to travel, her enjoyment of treasure hunting was redirected into second hand-store shopping (that in itself was a novel experience for her) where she hunted for discarded, beautiful bottles to – yet again – give a new life and new purpose. Even on the last day of Martha’s life she went to a thrift store looking for bottles, visited with dear friends and family members, and spent her last evening filling a bottle with lights. Her Swan Song left the world a bit brighter than it had been previously. So to anyone who still has one of her bottles, plug it in and let the lights shine. (And if anyone wants a bottle, we have plenty left! Please let us know!)

Martha was predeceased by parents Wilton and Esther Tetterton (Johnson), husband James Lee Guill, cousins Mary Glenn Waters (Walston) and Ester Ann Walston. Martha is survived by husband Jerry Russell Bailey of Ashburn, VA, daughter Angela Stewart Guill of Vienna, VA, son James Michael Guill, daughter in law Theresa “Terenia” Guill (Urban), grandchildren James Francis Guill and Mia Rose Guill all of Richmond, VA, sister Jean Stewart Hinton (Tetterton) of St. Louis, MO, cousins Horace Bone of Raleigh, NC and Arthur Bone of Lincoln, Rhode Island.