Vera May Driscoll Rooker

1933 - 2026

Vera May Driscoll Rooker died August 5th, 2026. She was born in 1933 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts to the Rev. Edward Ahmuty Driscoll and Eva Dillie Thomas Driscoll. They lived in Lenox, Massachusetts until the family moved when she was 9. They lived in Dunedin and Jacksonville, Florida; Columbia, South Carolina; Hartford, Connecticut; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Vera attended Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. She married Edgar Quarles Rooker in Atlanta in 1957, and they lived Columbia, South Carolina briefly before settling in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1959. In 2012 Vera and Ed moved to Goshen, Kentucky.

She was secretary at Kiser Junior High School in Greensboro and taught second grade at Murphy Elementary School for four years before staying home to educate and care for their daughter in 1965. In 1978 she returned to work as an administrative assistant for the Greensboro City Schools in the personnel office and later in the curriculum, middle, and high school supervisory offices before retiring in 1994.

In the 56 years of her marriage to Ed, she was his help and support as he taught music in the Greensboro Public Schools, played clarinet in the Greensboro and Winston Salem Symphonies, and served in the American School Band Directors Association (ASBDA).

She enjoyed quilting, reading, doing jigsaw puzzles, and traveling, and she was proud to have visited 46 states in her lifetime. She and Ed made fall pilgrimages to New England for many years, trips that always included a stop in Barnet, VT. She was a tenacious genealogical researcher, tracing her family from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany, some branches as far back as the 1600’s. Her research and family letters are preserved in the collection at the Florida State Archives in Tallahassee.

She is survived by Elaine Rooker Jack of Goshen, Kentucky; granddaughters Amanda Evalynn Jack of Chicago, Illinois and Gracelyn Marina Jack of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and sisters Carol Penn of Tampa, Florida and Judy Ijams of Boca Raton, Florida.

She was preceded in death by her husband Edgar Q. Rooker and son-in-law Jeffrey D. Jack.

She is remembered as “Aunt V” by dozens of nieces and nephews, and she never missed a Thomas/Brock family reunion with scores of cousins from across the country.

Memorial gifts in lieu of flowers may be made to The Edgar Quarles Rooker Leader of the Band Scholarship, UNC-Greensboro, and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.

A gathering in remembrance of her life will be held at First Christian Church, Louisville, KY on November 7th at 10am.