Virginia Lee Prest

September 26, 2023

Virginia Lee Prest went to her long-awaited home in heaven, Tuesday September 26, 2023, where she was living with her younger son in Albany, OR.
Virginia’s husband Tim passed several years ago, and she is survived by her two sons, Craig and Keith, four Grandchildren and six Great Grandchildren and one Great Great Grandson.
Though Virgie, as everyone who knew her called her, may have started life with some really different situations and circumstances in her early life, she went to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, perfect, pure and holy and at peace.
While along for the ride one day to leave her older brother with a foster care couple, the woman noted how cute Virgie was, so her mother replied that they could have her too.
For several years she enjoyed living with her foster parents in Dayton, Nv. but at age 10 the State of Nevada determined that her foster mother didn’t have the needed credentials to be her schoolteacher and suggested that the best results for Virgie would be to place her in the State Orphanage.
So, for the next 8 years Virgie was raised at the orphanage in Carson City, NV. where she graduated from Carson City High School.
During this time, she became a cheer leader and developed an interest in nursing.
Her medical career began by reading an article in Look magazine about childbirth, which resulted in her asking for and getting a chemistry set for Christmas.
Upon her release from the orphanage at age 18 two Doctor’s wives from Reno offered her a full ride scholarship to become a nurse.
Soon she was on a bus to San Francisco where she finished her training and became an RN. Just before she graduated, she married Timothy Prest and upon his release from the US Navy moved to Lovelock, Nv. where she worked in the hospital.
Next was a move to Tungsten, then Jungo Nv. where she got a job at Humboldt General Hospital in Winnemucca. She even did a stint at the hospital in Elko. In time she became the Director of Nurses at HGH.
The family then moved to Alaska, then Wyoming, then to Battle Mountain, then back to Winnemucca.
Even after she retired, she still helped out as a Community Health Nurse in Winnemucca and in the Emergency Rooms in both Parker Az. and Hawthorne Nv.
This biggest change in her life besides raising two boys and moving all over the countryside was when she became a Christian at 43 years old.
Now she realized where she got her joy in nursing from but also developed an understanding that just fixing a physical problem didn’t cure the patient.
To truly heal someone requires not just fixing the physical problem but also the mental and spiritual aspects as well.
An aspect of Jesus’ teachings such as, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” resulted in a closer personal interaction with her patients and was also seen in her life by the ministries she was involved with that took her to foreign countries to help Doctors help the poor and needy.
Virgie’s final wishes were fulfilled when her body was donated to and accepted by a medical research organization where her body is being used by Doctors and Students for training purposes.
Her sons will spread her and her husband’s ashes together near Winnemucca Mountain to fulfill both parent’s last wishes.
A small memorial will be held for close family and friends later. In lieu of flowers, any gifts may be given to Advancing Native Missions using their website,
https://advancingnativemissions.com/donate/ which will give you opportunities to give bibles, medicines, animals or material needs such as food and water wells.