Nancy Palmer Emerson

Nancy Palmer Emerson was born on July 19, 1943, in Tabb, Virginia to Eva Riggins Palmer and Joseph Benjamin Palmer. She went to Poquoson Elementary School, York High School, and Lynchburg College where she majored in elementary education. She married her husband, the Reverend Dr. Robert Carol Emerson on June 6, 1965. During their fifty-seven-year marriage, they had two sons Joseph Todd Emerson and William Craig Emerson (Elizabeth Mary Zelenka Emerson), and two grandsons, Noah William Emerson and Daniel Stephen Emerson. During her lifetime of service to her family and her community, she played the piano and/or organ for Spring Hill Baptist Church (Mathews County), DeBaun Memorial Baptist Church (Chesapeake), Yorkminister Baptist Church (Yorktown), and Messick Chapel (Poquoson). While her service as a skilled musician was highlighted, she is most known to others outside of her family as a kind, caring, and compassionate educator. She taught First and Second grade at Cobbs Creek Elementary School in rural Mathews County. Later, she taught Fourth and Fifth grades for twenty-two years at Tabb Elementary School in York County, where she mentored new teachers and was honored by her colleagues on more than one occasion as Tabb Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year. Leaving behind to cherish her memory are Joseph, Craig, Liz, Noah, and Daniel, an older sister, Barbara Jane Moore, and a long line of extended family. A funeral service will be held 11:30 a.m. Thursday, January 19th at Claytor Rollins Funeral Home, Poquoson. A private burial will be held at Parklawn Memorial Park in Hampton, Virginia next to her beloved and devoted husband. She made her transition on January 13, 2023. 

Arrangements and heartfelt guidance through Claytor Rollins Funeral Home.

Online condolences to claytorrollins.com.

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