by Matt Hughes
J-E News Editor
Providence native Virginia Capps was the proud wife of a local coal miner. Years ago she started making a coal mining quilt for her husband, Bill Capps, who worked at Providence No. 1 as an equipment operator and spent 47 years as President of the Union.
“She started it for daddy, but he passed away before it was finished,” said Rene Capps, the daughter of Bill and Virginia. “So she put the quilt away for about three years.”
Recently Virginia pulled the quilt back out and decided to finish it for her son’s 50th birthday. Billy was also a coal miner, like his father. In fact, he was a fourth generation coal miner, and his son was a fifth generation coal miner.
In the quilt blocks, beneath the images of coal miners, mother and daughter embroidered the names of each member of the family that had been in the coal industry, along with the years they worked.
“I am proud of it,” Virginia said. “I wish Bill could have seen it.”
Quilting had a special place in the lives of Bill and Virginia Capps. She said that when they were dating, kids didn’t go out and run around the way they do now. Bill would come to her house and help her make quilts.
“He would help me count squares and I would sow them together,” she said, pulling out a quilt that the two of them had made together before they were married.
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