Amy Hill Culver

Amy Hill Culver, IRMO, South Carolina, formerly of Escondido, California, passed away August 28, 2020, at Generations of Irmo. Mrs. Culver was born September 21, 1924, in St. Joseph, Missouri, to the late Albert and Bessie Hill but grew up in Waukegan, Illinois. She attended Waukegan Township High School and graduated at 17 as the salutatorian of her class of over 600. She began a job at the local draft board, and at the suggestion of her Sunday School teacher, she volunteered at the USO. At the urging of her best friend, Amy started writing to a young sailor who was stationed in Hawaii, Earnest Culver. When Earnie returned from his tour in Hawaii where he had dashed into the Naval Administration Building on the Pearl Harbor Pier on December 7, 1941, to report the bombing of the harbor, he met Amy and her family in Illinois where the two young people fell in love. Amy took a train to Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1944 where Earnie was stationed, and he and Amy were married. They were able to celebrate 51 years together. Amy embraced the adventure of being a Navy wife and the priorities of military life. She taught her daughters to love military parades, sing the Navy Hymn, enjoy John Phillip Sousa, maximize a monthly military paycheck, and engage fully in the life of each new community. She was always kind and respectful to people who wore the uniform regardless of status, instilling in her daughters the importance of the sacrifice and service of all military personnel. She understood the requirements of military families and stepped up every time Earnie came home and said, “Well, start packing. We’re being transferred.” Amy told her daughters, “It will be an adventure.” They lived in Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma (yes, at a Naval base), and different locations in California including Alameda, Lemoore, San Diego, Miramar, and finally retiring in Escondido. Her sailor husband, who spent his career on aircraft carriers, wanted nothing more than to be “dry-docked” in nature and able to drive big, fast cars when he was on land. While Amy was serious in nature, her husband was mischievous, irreverent, and fun-loving, often prompting Amy to laugh deeply and hide a smile, a behavior that her daughters tried to provoke whenever possible. On vacations, they explored the national parks with their daughters who each had assigned tasks to set up a campsite. The reward for this labor was experiencing the beauty and majesty of nature and hiking in the tallest of the California mountains, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Cuyamaca, Yosemite, in the Four Corners of Arizona and Colorado, in the Red Hills and White Sands of Texas, and in the Rio Grande Valley. After their three daughters, Susan, Nancy, and Gail, were grown, Amy and Earnie continued traveling sans a canvas tent to Alaska, Hawaii, the Western National Parks, the Midwest, the East Coast from Boston to Florida, the Southern United States, Death Valley, and often the Borrego Desert. Amy excelled at many things, always seeking out new things to learn, see and do. She taught herself to be an expert seamstress, upholsterer, and needle worker and an excellent cook and hostess, welcoming many new and old friends to their homes throughout the years. As a young girl, she started collecting stamps, continuing this interest into her later years. She was a natural athlete leading backyard softball and other field activities, teaching her grandchildren how to play baseball, and always being a fierce competitor in ping pong and family board games. One way she and Earnie connected when they moved to a new town was to immediately find a church, a library, recreational facilities, and, for Amy, a political women’s group. She set an inspiring lifetime example for her daughters and friends of volunteering in political campaigns, serving for over 20 years as a precinct captain for the voting poll in her neighborhood and as the treasurer of her church, and hosting foreign exchange students. She loved to read and studied the Bible voraciously and shared her studies by teaching children in Good News Clubs and serving on Child Evangelism leadership teams. She loved going to Bible conferences with leading evangelical leaders of her time, and in her later years she taught a weekly Bible study at a local nursing home and hosted a weekly community group in her home in South Carolina. During her final years, she was a member of Riverland Hills Baptist Church, the New Beginnings Sunday School class, and the Oasis Senior Ministry. It was not until 1975 that Amy was able to realize her lifelong dream of attending college. She started by taking a chemistry class at Palomar College in San Marcos, California, and did not stop until she had taken classes in nearly every department, including every botany class the college offered. She earned honors with more credits than needed for an Associate Degree in 1979 and only stopped her formal education so she and Earnie could continue to travel. Amy and Earnie both deeply valued education, sacrificing and investing in saving for their daughters’ college educations from the time the girls were young children. She moved to Columbia in 2000 after serving as a caregiver for her husband who passed away in 1996 and once again became active in church and other activities, including long walks, day tours, water aerobics, and traveling to see her family until she was 90 years old. She lived throughout her life by giving of herself to others, making handmade quilts, doilies, baby blankets, and jams for many, purchasing and packing backpacks for school children in need, and often sending handwritten notes and letters to her children, grandchildren, and friends. Amy was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, five sisters, and one brother. She is survived by her three daughters: Susan Dobbins of Irmo, SC, Nancy McPherson of Monrovia, CA, and Gail Kozlowski (Steve) of Worley, ID; three grandchildren, Julie Dobbins Warren (Jamie), LTC Stephen Dobbins (retired) (Jessica), and Betsy Dobbins Bender (Bryan); and seven great-grandchildren: Jackson Warren, Jonathan Warren, Joel Warren, Piper Dobbins, Hart Bender, Lottie Bender, and Jack Bender, and many nieces and nephews. A memorial service to honor her life will be held September 6 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC. Burial will be at Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, California, where Earnie is buried. Memorials may be made to Child Evangelism Fellowship: CEF of SC, Inc., Columbia-Midlands District, P. O. Box 21003, Columbia, SC. 29221 or BBN (Bible Broadcasting Network), PO Box 7300, Charlotte, NC. 28241 . The family would like to thank Generations of Irmo for creating a safe, lovely, and homelike environment for its residents, and Comfort Care Hospice for their compassion, kindness and care.