Editing Viola Post Kirkwood

[https://www.newspapers.com/image/189456695/?article=5bd9ca77-d2ca-4dae-84bc-a0908d9f2865&focus=0.5180457,0.28429884,0.74947864,0.5490615&xid=3355&_gl=1*1ti6cyo*_gcl_au*MTk4MzE0OTE5My4xNzAxMjE0NDQ1*_ga*ODI5Njg2NzYxLjE3MDEyMTQ0NDY.*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*M2NjODhmZG Greenville News obituary]

Viola Post was born in Moulton, Iowa on 22 February 1869. Her father ran a jewelry store. She was a frail child, and the cold weather made her ill every winter; so her family moved to Texas when she was six, about 1875.

She met and married Ramey Kirkwood, a jeweler, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1891. They traveled in 17 states and lived in 9 of them before setting in Greer in 1919. In an interview for her 100th birthday, Viola said they moved to Greer from Abbeville because "Abbeville had no roads on which they could run their car." Viola was an optometrist, and practiced in Greer for 38 years. Her optometry cabinet is in the GHM collection. She was very active at First Presbyterian Church of Greer. After retiring, she kept up with several hobbies, among them painting, photography, music, and sewing. She sewed her first dress at age 9 and sewed all her own clothes the rest of her life. With photography, she was noted as "one of the best touch-up artists in the business." However, she said she loved "painting and music better than anything." She played 10 different instruments, including violin, guitar, and harmonica. She was a prolific painter. Many of her paintings featured deer, which she loved. Late in life, she began making pictures from beads.

Also in the GHM collection 

In response to friends calling her remarkable and amazing, Viola responded, "I just leave everything up to God." Her advice to young people was, "Do plenty of work. It doesn't kill anybody, but worry does."

Ramey died in 1955, not long after celebrating their 64th wedding anniversary.

Viola celebrated her 100th birthday 22 February 1969, and was delighted to receive birthday greetings from President Nixon. She died at the age of 104 in March, 1973. She is buried with her husband in Rosemont Cemetery, Newberry, SC.