Virginia Hamilton
Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton (born September 7, 1921 in Kansas City, Missouri; died April 4, 2016 in Birmingham) was a journalist, educator and historian.
Virginia was the daughter of McCellan and Dorothy Rainold Van der Veer. The family moved to Roebuck Springs when she was a child when her father was hired by The Birmingham News. She she attended a private school operated by Roland Frye until entering Woodlawn High School. She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in English at Birmingham-Southern College in 1941.
During World War II, Virginia was employed by the Associated Press as a staff writer in Washington D.C., and covered the Truman White House. She married Lowell S. Hamilton on August 4, 1946 and returned with him to Birmingham. She was hired by the News as a reporter, alongside her father, in 1948. She left the paper two years later and raised two children, Carol and David while teaching at the University of Montevallo and Birmingham-Southern College. While at BSC, Hamilton returned to school and earned her master's and Ph.D. in history from the University of Alabama in 1961 and 1968.
In 1965 Hamilton became one of the first professors to join the faculty of UAB, where she remained for 25 years, including 10 years as chair of the Department of History. She retired in order to care for her husband. She published seven books on Alabama history and biography, including standard texbooks for Alabama's 4th and 9th grade state history curriculum. In those books she took care to acknowledge the contributions of marginalized groups such as native Americans, African Americans and women to the state's history. Her 1976 history of Alabama was judged the best of the 50 commissioned histories in Norton Books' Bicentennial series. Hamilton also authored three volumes of personal memoirs and contributed numerous essays to the New York Times, the International Herald-Tribune and various magazines.
Hamilton was honored as a Fellow of the Society of American Historians and received an Alabama Humanities Foundation Award and the John F. Ramsey Award from the Alabama Association of Historians. The Alabama Historical Association's "Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton Award" honors writers and educators who help make history accessible.
Hamilton died in April 2016, having survived her husband and both children. She was survived by her daughter-in-law Telura and a grandson.
Publications
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1972) Hugo Black: the Alabama Years. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1977) Alabama: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1978) Hugo Black: the Alabama Years. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1978) Hugo Black: the Road to the Court. Georgetown, Texas: Southwestern University Press
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer, ed. (1978) Hugo Black and the Bill of Rights; Proceedings of the First Hugo Black Symposium in American History. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1980) The Story of Alabama. Montgomery: Viewpoint Publications
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1982) Seeing Historic Alabama; Fifteen Guided Tours. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1984) Alabama: A History. New York: Norton
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1986) Your Alabama. Montgomery: Viewpoint Publications
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1987) Lister Hill: Statesman from the South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1991) Ancestors: The Reinfort, Renauld, Pickles, Halliday Families in Louisiana, 1848-1991. self-published
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (1996) Looking for Clark Gable, and other Twentieth Century Pursuits: Collected Writings. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press
- Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (2009) Teddy's Child: Growing Up in the Anxious Southern Gentry Between the Great Wars: A Family Memoir Montgomery: NewSouth Books
References
- "Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton" obituary (April 6, 2016) The Birmingham News
- Garrison, Greg (April 8, 2016) "UAB historian, AP reporter who covered FDR, wrote 10 books about Alabama." The Birmingham News
External links
- Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton at Alabama Authors (lib.ua.edu)