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Burge, Alice Alverina Beebe Parsons, age 101 of Moundsville, WV died Thursday, May 20, 2010 in Country Home, Moundsville, WV. She was born July 31, 1908 in Moundsville the daughter of the late Albert Wesley and Della Gray Beebe. She was the second of four children, all of whom preceded her in death. She was raised by her grandparents, Francis Goleson and Alice Alverina Miller Gray, for the first ten years of her life until her grandmother’s death. They lived in Farmington where her grandfather was a merchant, and she would visit back and forth with her parents and siblings by train. After her grandmother’s death, Alice and her grandfather moved to Moundsville, where he opened a general store. Della kept house and she and her four children lived in the family home on 5th St., which still stands today. Always independent, Alice learned to drive when she was 14 and would take her grandfather, who preferred to be chauffeured, around to visit family. She often talked of driving from Moundsville to Cameron and Kausooth, where her great-aunts and great-uncles lived. She knew all the back roads of Marshall and Ohio counties well. Alice was married young to Encil Parsons. They had one child, Delores, who was the apple of her mother’s eye. The marriage ended in divorce shortly after Delores’ birth, and Alice shared a home first with her mother, grandfather, and siblings, and then later with her mother and her sister, Beatrice “Betty” Habiig. Alice worked at the Marx Toy Factory in Glen Dale and met her second husband there. He was the love of her life. She and Herbert Burge were happily married and devoted to each other until his death. They traveled to Florida in the winter and frequently visited her daughter and her family in Detroit, MI. After Herb’s passing, she shared a home with her daughter and son-in-law in Moundsville, and for a short time in Detroit. She grew flowers and tomatoes, potatoes, and onions in her garden everywhere she lived. For the past year and a half, she was a resident of Country Home in Moundsville. She was very close to her daughter, who passed away in 2002; she never really got over losing her. Her many cousins and neighbors did their best to keep her spirits up. She became especially close to her California, Maryland, and Connecticut family; the children of her best pal and close friend, her first cousin, Betty Girard. Alice loved to shop and eat and to “run”--she drove all over the area in her little red car to visit family and friends. She looked much younger than her years, so much so that when she renewed her driver’s license at age 100, the clerk at the DMW thought she had put down the wrong birth date. A lavish celebration was held to mark her centennial birthday, with everything decorated in red, her favorite color. She also enjoyed eating at buffet-style restaurants where she could pick and choose a bit of this and a bit of that, a trait shared by many in her family. She was related to many of the residents of Moundsville, with ties to the Crows, Riggs, McIlvains, Woods, Millers, and Grays among others. She was a regular at the annual Gray Family Reunion. She enjoyed talking about the old days and visiting with her many cousins. She was the star of the show, the matriarch, both due to her age and her remarkable memory, and in recent years she received the prize for the oldest person there; many of the Grays are remarkably long-lived. Alice is survived by her friends, many cousins, two grandchildren, a great-grandson, and four great-great grandchildren. Her passing leaves a big hole in everyone’s heart. She was in remarkably good health until just a few months before her death. A lifelong lover of dogs, Alice was seldom without one. She particularly liked small dogs especially fox terriers. Family will receive friends on Wednesday from 11am until time of funeral service at 1pm at Grisell Funeral Home & Crematory, 400 Jefferson Avenue, Moundsville with Rev. Billy Ray Carpenter officiating. Interment in Riverview Cemetery, Moundsville. Donations in her memory may be made to the Marshall County Animal Shelter, Rt#5, Box 210, Moundsville, WV 26041.