Rose Collins Andrew | Eastern NC Now

    Rose Collins Andrew, age 92, born on March 31, 1933 and departed this life on Wednesday, July 2, 2025.

    Rose was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina to the late Paul Clifton Collins and the former Beatrice Hilda Nixon. She grew up in a three room home until 1944 when four new rooms were added as well as electricity and running water to the kitchen. They also had an outside toilet with a concrete floor.

    She attended William R. Davie Elementary School and graduated from Roanoke Rapids High School in the class of 1951.

    After graduation she filled out an application with the FBI and was accepted. She moved to Washington, D.C. where she worked as a clerk, typist, file researcher and stenographer.

    In 1952 she married Robert Lloyd Messinger in Bangor, Pennsylvania and lived in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. They had a son named Michael Lloyd Messinger. Rose was later transferred to St. Louis, Missouri in 1957 and then to London England in 1963. She returned to St. Louis in 1967 and worked in the Defense Mapping Agency as a secretary. In 1977 her husband Bob was killed in an automobile accident.

    In 1982 she married Thomas Trainor and moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming for nine months before then moving to Sun City West, Arizona. While there she worked at Luke AFB as a secretary until she retired in 1995. Her husband Tom died in 1997.

    In 1999 she married James "Jim" Andrew. They loved to travel and dance. Eventually they decided to move to Belhaven, North Carolina where she volunteered at Pungo District Hospital. She was a faithful member and greeter at St. Clair's Church of Christ in Bath. A short time later they moved to Washington, North Carolina where she joined literacy volunteers, Red Cross Disaster, Red Cross DAT (fire victims) and Red Cross Blood volunteers. She taught bridge at the senior center. She was active in yoga, tai chi, aerobics, and loved traveling with the Joy Group. Jim and Rose hosted many friends in their home for card games, meals and laughter. Her husband Jim died in on December 18, 2020.

    Rose is survived by one granddaughter, Sherrie L. Messinger, one great grandson, Daniel Messinger; and one niece, Elizabeth R. Haynes.

    The family suggests that memorials be directed to St. Clair's Church of Christ.