Louise Stone Ross
Louise Ross Obituary
Louise Stone Ross (Lou) was born January 24, 1927 in Forest Hills, New York City, the younger daughter of Charles Logan Stone and Helen Picker Stone. She spent her childhood in Clayton, Missouri. With her favorite memories being the Sunday afternoon drives when her Dad and Mom would take her and her sister Reba for ice cream, and her summers spent at camp on the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin. Lou graduated from Springfield Township High School in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania while her father was stationed at Willow Grove Naval Base during World War II. Following graduation, she attended the University of Missouri and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. Some years later she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Boston University as a geography major and worked as a cartographer for the U.S. Army Natick Laboratories in Massachusetts during the Vietnam War. It was there that she met her future husband who was in the Army as a medical lab specialist studying protective measures for flash blindness.
Lou wore many hats after that: first as an administrative secretary in the Material Science Center at Cornell university while her husband earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Cornell; office manager/receptionist at a veterinary hospital they helped establish in Blairsville, Georgia; a special education teacher in Calvert County, Maryland while her husband ran a large animal practice, and as an administrative secretary for the team that established the Program for Exceptional Gifted Students at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia where her husband served as the resident veterinarian at Silverbrook Farms in nearby Middlebrook, VA. Lou later moved to Clay Center, Nebraska when her husband accepted an offer to be the resident veterinarian at the USDA Meat Animal Research Center. Besides being active in the local community Lou pursued courses toward a Master’s degree in Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and was a volunteer docent at the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University. When she returned to Virginia as her husband joined the USDA APHIS national program staff, Lou became a docent at Stratford Hall plantation and was an active member of the Westmoreland County Garden Club and the Yeocomico Episcopal Church. After her husband’s retirement from USDA in 2015, Lou was deeply saddened by the sudden death of her son Thomas Keely III but could be strongly supportive when their veterinary friend and colleague Dr. Beecher Watson asked if Dr. Ross would be willing to cover his practice for a few months while he was treated for a health issue the results of which eventually made it necessary and desirable for them to move to Southside VA. Though Lou’s health was deteriorating she never lost her Love for: Life, her Family, her Friends, life-long Learning, and her four-legged Companions. She is greatly missed, but went to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on October 7, 2025.
Lou is survived by her loving husband Dr. Gary Ross; her Daughter Catherine Hornfeldt (Gary), Charleston, SC; her Grandchildren Amy Hopgood (Keith), Owensboro, KY, Christopher Hornfeldt (Leigh Anne), Greensboro, NC, and Kyle Hornfeldt (Jeremy), Spartanburg, SC , and five Great Grandchildren Andrea Paczkowski, Brooklyn, NY; Jody Hopgood, Owensboro, KY and Brian, Ethan, and Kiran Hornfeldt, Greensboro, NC, and nieces Nancy, Meg, and Mary Lou and nephew William and their families. She was predeceased by her parents, Charles and Helen Stone; her sister Reba A. Dubbs, and her son Thomas Keely III. A Memorial Service will be held 11:00 A.M., Saturday, October 25, 2025, at the St. Lukes Episcopal Church, 424 S. Main St., Blackstone, VA 23824. Arrangements are by the Blackstone Chapel of the Joseph McMillian Funeral Home, 1826 Cox Rd., Blackstone, VA 23824.
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