Jim and Marion Farmer

Marion and Jim Farmer traveled less than one mile from their home of 42 years on Williams Road to live at Westminster Canterbury. The distance may have been short, but the move-in was challenging because of the quick sale of their home.

Jim, a Virginia native, upon completion of high school in 1950 joined the USAF and served for two years in the Washington, D. C., area as a radio traffic analyst. He next turned his energies to obtaining a college education and received a degree from Lynchburg College with a major in English in 1956, followed by teaching high school English and history for six years. 

Marion, born and raised in Mississippi, entered Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in 1957. She met Jim on a blind date arranged by her roommate during her junior year. The date obviously went well: they married in June 1961, shortly after her graduation with a major in Russian Studies and a minor in English. The couple lived and taught in Lynchburg during their first year of marriage, Marion in the Lynchburg public schools and Jim at Virginia Episcopal School (VES), where he also successfully coached the basketball team, winning the 1961 VA Prep League Championship Title. 

After one year of residency in Lynchburg, the Farmers moved to Lexington, Virginia, allowing Jim to study law at Washington and Lee University. During that time Marion taught English at Natural Bridge High School. In 1965, with Jim’s law degree proudly in hand, they returned to Lynchburg where he established a general practice of law with an emphasis in trial and chancery work. 

Their first child, James Sebrell Farmer, Jr., arrived shortly before they left Lexington and his brother, Robert Harris Farmer, followed in 1967. Marion stopped teaching and divided her time between child rearing and volunteer work. Two active boys kept her busy, although she frequently managed to assist the Lynchburg R-MWC Alumnae chapter