Carolyn Docie Hale Bruce

Carolyn Docie Hale Bruce passed away peacefully in her home in Radford Virgina, on September 18, 2025. She was 82 years old.

She was born in Roanoke, Virginia on November 12th 1942. She graduated from William Fleming High School in 1961.

She was a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to four children, nine grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Married to Charles Randolph Bruce Jr. for fifty-two years, the couple were both artists and writers of the fine arts and commercial arts. They operated several advertising and arts businesses in Virginia Beach for many years. She was a member of the Virginia Beach Genealogical Society and devoted decades to researching her family’s history.

She wrote three volumes of pictorial history books on Roanoke Virginia through Donning Publishing, that we understand were used in the public schools in Roanoke for some time. The couple co-wrote and published four historical novels on their common ancestor Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland set in the early thirteen hundreds.

She is survived by her husband, Charles Randolph Bruce Jr.; her children Ian Alexander Bruce, Charles Randolph Bruce III, and Victoria Phelps; her grandchildren Kalyn C. Gillespie, Morgan Craddock, Tristan, Conall, Holt, Joss, Elizabeth, Riley, and Randy Bruce; her great-grandchildren Marley Wasson, Elijah and Willow Gillespie and Georgia Craddock; and her sister Mary Elizabeth Hale.

Carolyn will have a Graveside Service at 2:00pm on Thursday, September 25, 2025 at Evergreen Burial Park, 1307 Summit Ave SW, Roanoke, VA 24015.