Lives Well Lived

Remembering notable Richmonders we lost in 2025

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Henry L. Marsh III

A civil rights attorney who worked alongside the legendary Oliver Hill and Samuel Tucker, Henry L. Marsh was elected to Richmond City Council in 1966 and became the city’s first Black mayor in 1977. His mayoralty ushered in a new era of Black political power in Richmond in the years following the city’s annexation of 47,000 Chesterfield County residents (roughly 23 square miles), which led to a change in how City Council members were elected. A court-ordered, nine-district ward system was put in place, and Richmond elected its first majority-Black City Council. Marsh later served 22 years in the Virginia Senate (1992-2014). Marsh, 91, died on Jan. 23. —Scott Bass

Lucille Brown   

Only the second Black woman to rise to the position of superintendent of Richmond Public Schools, Lucille Brown was renowned for her resilience and toughness in the face of adversity. During her four decades as a teacher and administrator, Brown’s career came full circle: After graduating from then-segregated Armstrong High School in 1946, she attended Virginia Union University and then Howard University before returning to teach biology at Armstrong. She became principal at Armstrong in 1974 and superintendent of RPS in 1991. In the years after her retirement, Lucille M. Brown Middle School on Jahnke Road was named in her honor. Brown, 96, died on June 5. —SB

Beverly Mazursky

The founder of Bev’s Homemade Ice Cream, a Carytown staple for 27 years, Beverly Mazursky embodied compassion, outspokenness and a willingness to try just about anything. She had a program, “You name it, I’ll make it,” where Mazursky would create new flavors suggested by customers then donate the proceeds to charity. Mazursky got a late start in the food business, enrolling in the Culinary Institute of America at age 49, but she quickly found her passion — ice cream — and opened a store in Lenox, Massachusetts, before moving to Richmond and opening her namesake shop in Carytown in 1998. Mazursky, 87, died on June 15. —SB

George Woltz

In 1969, George Woltz and Dave Martin had something to prove. Two years earlier, the advertising partners unsuccessfully pitched an ad campaign to the state tourism board. As Kate Andrews described in a 2019 Richmond magazine piece, Woltz and Martin agreed that given a second chance, they’d present something unforgettable. And that was “Virginia Is for Lovers.” Woltz, from South Boston, became a draftsman while in the Army, creating signs and printed materials. He studied art at the Richmond Professional Institute (today Virginia Commonwealth University), where he met his wife, Nancy. Shortly after, he co-founded Martin & Woltz. The team separated in 1975; Woltz preferred a smaller shop, while Martin founded The Martin Agency. Woltz died at the age of 91 on July 16. —Harry Kollatz Jr.

Adam Turck

A respected and beloved theater artist, Adam Turck witnessed a young woman and a man in a violent dispute Aug. 2 while walking his dog on East Grace Street. He intervened, and the 19-year-old assailant first shot Turck, mortally wounding him, then turned the gun on himself. From Sellersville, Pennsylvania, and an Ithaca College graduate, Turck toured the country with Maryland-based National Players but found his theater home in Richmond. Turck’s versatile talent and compelling stage presence brought him award-winning success, and his humor and thoughtfulness made him a favorite colleague. While on life support, he turned 35. A gathering to honor his final gifts as an organ donor was reportedly the largest ever seen at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. —HK

Danielle Spencer

Danielle Spencer, 60, found nationwide recognition through the ABC sitcom “What’s Happening!!” as sassy little sister “Dee” on more than 60 episodes in the late 1970s and a spinoff series in the ’80s. But she was known locally as a veterinarian, caring for animals until 2014. Not long after the sitcoms ended, Spencer moved on from acting to pursue higher education, eventually earning a doctorate in veterinary science in 1996 from Tuskegee University Veterinary School. After moving to the Richmond region in the mid-2010s, her practice and occasional local television segments brought her a new audience of Richmonders. She died Aug. 11 after an 11-year battle with breast cancer. —Kevin Johnson

Vicky Hester

The longtime owner of Babes of Carytown, one of the last remaining lesbian bars on the East Coast, Vicky Hester was both a community advocate and a fierce defender of LGBTQ rights. Founded in the mid-1980s, during Hester’s proprietorship Babes became a staple and a safe haven for the gay community at a time when few such places existed. Known for her toughness and big heart — along with a love of disco and Jell-O shots — Hester was also a generous philanthropist who helped establish a food pantry at the Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond. Hester, 71, died on Sept. 2. —SB

James M. “Jim” Holland

For nearly two decades, Jim Holland was the only Democratic voice and Black member of the conservative Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors. He was no rabble-rouser, but the genteel CPA with the familiar Southern drawl was beloved in his district; he spent three years as board chairman (2014, 2021 and 2024) and taught accounting at Virginia Commonwealth University for 24 years. Holland, first elected in 2007, helped guide Chesterfield through the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, along with considerable population and economic growth in the years between. Holland, 73, died on Oct. 14. —SB

D’Angelo

The otherworldly R&B icon got his start singing gospel in South Richmond and Powhatan County at his family’s Pentecostal church. D’Angelo, born Michael Eugene Archer, would go on to become perhaps Richmond’s most acclaimed musician, a four-time Grammy winner who stormed into the spotlight with his sophomore album, “Voodoo,” and his sultry, shirtless video for “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” in 2000. It would take another 14 years for the reclusive artist, who dealt with substance abuse and self-image issues, to produce his final album, “Black Messiah.” After a long battle with pancreatic cancer, he died on Oct. 14 at the age of 51. —SB

Edwin “Eddie” Slipek

A journalist and prolific teacher of Richmond history and its built environment, Eddie Slipek died Dec. 15 after a brief illness. He was 75. Slipek spent more than 30 years as a senior contributing editor and architecture critic for Style Weekly before joining Richmond BizSense as a columnist in 2021. He also taught Richmond history and architecture to countless students at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School and Virginia Commonwealth University. A longtime advocate of public transit, Slipek didn’t own a car and walked the city every day, a guiding spirit and preservationist until his death. —SB

William J. “Bill” Martin

Bill Martin, longtime director of The Valentine, the city’s preeminent museum of history and culture, died Dec. 28 after being struck by a car at 10th and Broad streets the day before. Martin, 71, helped to resurrect the museum from near-bankruptcy in the mid-1990s. Over the next three decades, Martin steered the institution toward the difficult conversations about Richmond’s complicated history, becoming an educational force and guiding light in a city still coming to terms with its past. —SB