This posting is nearly 5 years old now, so you may well have gotten the answers you were seeking.
Ruth Elizabeth Shifflett is my mother-in-law, born in April of 1921. Her mother, Fannie, died of a shotgun wound when her toddler son, George, found his older brother's (Elmer)loaded gun and "played" with it. Fannie was holding Ruth at the time, and Ruth lost an arm in the shotgun blast.

She has said that her aunts took care of she and George until they went to boarding school at Blue Ridge School. The both completed their schooling there.
If you want me to ask her more detailed questions, send them to me.