Biography
Born Virginia Tunstall in Nash County, North Carolina to Anne Arrington and Dr. Peyton Randolph Tunstall, she was reared by several of her mother's numerous half-siblings. Her mother died when Virginia was three years old. Her father left her to her mother's family and moved to Alabama. The girl lived first with the Drakes in North Carolina.
At the age of six, Virginia was taken to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where she lived with her maternal aunt and her husband Henry W. Collier, later appointed to the State Supreme Court. In 1837 he was made Chief Justice; in 1849 he was elected by an overwhelming margin as the governor of the state, and served for two terms.
After four years, her aunt's health was failing, so Virginia went to live with her maternal uncle, Alfred Battle, and his family. Their plantation was outside Tuscaloosa. Virginia was tutored but also had much time to play with her cousins and have the run of the property. During this period, she became close to her father's brother, Thomas B. Tunstall, Secretary of State for Alabama, who took her under his wing, introducing her to literature, poetry and music.
With her uncle Thomas, she visited her father in Mobile, where the two Tunstall men took Virginia to the theatre and other events. At about fifteen, she was sent to the Female Academy in Nashville, Tennessee to finish her education at a private girls' school. Tuscaloosa, then a city of 6,000, as the capital attracted people from all over the state and generated lively social events.
Read more about this topic: Virginia Clay-Clopton
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