Lucille Salatin
SWOOPE – Naomi Lucille Salatin, 102, passed away Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
Lucille was born in Wooster, Ohio on December 11, 1923 to the late Clarence and Bessie (Wile) Pope.
Lucille received a master’s degree in health and physical education from Indiana University, and while working on her degree, met William Thomas “Bill” Salatin. They were married in 1950. Lucille became the first female physical education professor at Bob Jones College in Cleveland, Tenn. (The college relocated to Greenville, S.C. and is now Bob Jones University). Bill and Lucille moved to Venezuela and eventually purchased a farm in the Equatorial Highlands. Following the coup d'etat of 1958, militants chased the American ex-pat family off their land. The Salatins left everything and were forced to flee the farm they had started. They returned to the U. S. on Easter Sunday, 1961, and purchased a property in Swoope, Virginia, determined to start over. In 1982 she and Bill, along with son Joel and wife Teresa, co-founded Polyface Farm.
Lucille was employed as the girls’ health and physical education teacher at Buffalo Gap High School from its inaugural year until 1984, when she retired to care for her mother, and then for her husband. Lucille’s retirement years were active and full; she served as an officer, board member, and volunteer in more than a dozen local nonprofit organizations with an incredible capacity to give of herself for the benefit of others. Some of the organizations she enjoyed supporting included Weekday Religious Education, the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace and Museum, AARP, American Red Cross, the Retired Teachers Association, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton Visitor Center, Frontier Culture Museum and others. One of her favorites was Happy Notes, a group that brought encouragement through song to nursing home residents.
She was a member of New Covenant Community Church.
Lucille was preceded in death by her husband and parents; and a sister, Dorothy Miller.
She is survived by three children, Arthur “Art” Salatin (wife Donna Whited Salatin), and Joel Salatin (wife Teresa Wenger Salatin), all of Swoope, and Loretta Salatin Sheets (husband David Sheets) of Carrollton, Tex.; eight grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
The family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, June 14 at Bear Funeral Home, Churchville.
A private burial service will be held on the family farm in Swoope.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on June 30 in New Covenant Community Church, Weyers Cave. A celebration of Lucille’s life will take place on the farm from 4 – 8 p.m. on July 1.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Gideons International; to the Kenya fund of New Covenant Community Church (Lucille sent hundreds of letters and handmade dresses to encourage orphaned Kenyan children); or to Hospice of the Shenandoah.
Condolences may be expressed to the family online at www.bearfuneralhome.com.
