Vista Battle Locke

Vista Battle Locke, 99, of Givens Estates and long-time resident of Malvern Hills, died July 9, 2004, at Park Ridge Hospital. A daughter of the late William and Julia Deanes Battle, she was born on October 16, 1904, in tidewater Virginia at the Battle Farm on the Notaway River, an area now known as Battle Beach. Her grandfather donated the land upon which Chowan College was built. Mrs. Locke attended Women’s College of the University of North Carolina and Farmville Virginia Teacher’s College. She taught second grade in Edenton, NC, prior to her marriage and moved from Bluefield, WV to Asheville in 1945. A member of First Baptist Church of Asheville for 59 years, she served as superintendent of the Primary Sunday School Department and was active in WMU. She also served as president of the Hall Fletcher Junior High School PTA and was instrumental in starting the Teen Center at the West Asheville Community Center. Throughout her life she was active in Federated Women’s Clubs. She was a long-time member of the Community Club of Asheville, serving several terms as president and also earned state recogniton in sewing from the Federated Women’s Club of North Carolina. She was an active member of the Asheville Women’s Club until shortly before her death. Her lifelong love of travel began as a child riding along the Chowan River in her Uncle Harry Deanes’ river boat as he delivered the mail. She enjoyed river boat and ocean cruises and travel in other parts of the world. She was preceded in death by her husband of 55 years, Lloyd Foster Locke who died in 1983 and by a son, William Locke, who died in 1957. Mrs. Locke is survived by her daughter, Julia A. Locke of Asheville; grandchildren, Susan Peckham and her husband John of Colorado Springs, CO, and David Boettcher and his wife Tammy of Asheville; great-grandchildren, John Brook Peckham and Catherine Locke Peckham of Colorado Springs. Funeral services will be 3:00 pm Sunday in the Patton Avenue chapel of Groce Funeral Home with the Reverend Doctor Guy Sayles officiating. Burial will follow at Lewis Memorial Park. Her family will receive friends from 2:00-3:00 pm Sunday at the funeral home prior to the service and at other times will be at 20 Cranford Road, Asheville. Memorials may be made to Ruth Winslow’s Leprosy Ministry, Hong Kong/China Medical, World Missions, Free Methodist Church of North America, PO Box 535002, Indianapolis, IN, 46253-5002.