NEWPORT NEWS, VA.  Thelma Whitmore Hill, 100, died Tuesday, April 7, 2020, at her home with family by her side. Mrs. Hill was born October 24, 1919, in Cape Charles, Va., spending her childhood days at the beach and stealing apples from the neighbor's tree.  Her family moved to Newport News and she made her home there and in Poquoson, Va., where she again lived near the water, teaching herself to pilot the boat she and her husband kept docked there. One of her first jobs was as a clerk at Woolworth and later she would retire from the Purchasing Department at Newport News Shipbuilding. After the death of her husband, she lived a fiercely independent life for many years until Frank Hill finally convinced her to marry again. She and Frank spent many happy years together traveling and cruising the Caribbean Sea. Family was always the most important thing in her life. She cherished spending time with her son, her grandchildren, and her extended family of nieces and nephews. She was an avid football fan and spent her Sundays watching her favorite teams play. Her family and friends will miss her caring nature, how she always placed her family's welfare before her own, her freedom to speak her mind, and her sense of humor about life, even when it dealt her hard times and difficult challenges.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Grover and Virginia Whitmore; two husbands, Thomas C. Edwards, Sr., and Clifford Frank Hill; two brothers, Howard and Carl Whitmore; three sisters, Virginia Rolston, Kathryn Stone, and Elsie Lewis; and a granddaughter, Leslie Cato.

She is survived by her son, Thomas C. Edwards Jr.; seven grandchildren, Susie Anderson (Joe), Chris Crews (Patti), Tom Edwards III (Kathy), Theresa Husted (David), Frank Edwards, Jeff Edwards (Connie), and Kelly Barlow (Ryland); 8 great-grandchildren; 12 great-great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces, nephews and extended family.

Arrangements are in the care of Berceuse Funeral Home.