Vella Jean Hopkins Culver, 92, died at home on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022.

Daughter of the late Stephen O. and Vella Ross Hopkins, she was born outside of Princess Anne and grew up in the close-knit rural community of Mount Vernon in Somerset County. As part of a large farm family with seven brothers and sisters, she said the household was filled with “love and good conversation.”

Coming of age during World War II, she closely followed news of fierce battles, often involving family and friends, in the European and Pacific theaters, many in exotic locations.

Her husband, Clyde Richard “Dick” Culver of Salisbury, pursued a career in the U.S. Air Force and, during his 22 years of service, she relished being a military wife and mother to three boys. 

Following her husband’s retirement from the Air Force, the family returned to the Eastern Shore where they spent many years. They moved to Las Vegas to be near children and grandchildren. With her husband’s death in 2014, after 68 years of marriage, she returned to Salisbury.

She is survived by her sons, Robert W. Culver and Richard W. Culver of Salisbury, and Glen H. Culver of Las Vegas; five grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her sisters, Cora Lou Adams, Catherine Hopkins Ent, Helen McCready MacLeod, Sarah Dryden Horner and Gladys Hopkins; and brothers, Stephen Bunting Hopkins, George Robert Hopkins and John Edward Hopkins.

A memorial service scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 29, at Faith Community Church has been postponed. It will be rescheduled later in the year.

Arrangements are in the care of Holloway Funeral Home in Salisbury.