[2] Gatling was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease while in high school, which required radiation treatment at a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia.

[2] There, Roxane Gatling met her future husband, a Virginia law student named Jim Gilmore, at a debating society meeting in the Fall of 1974.

[2] She then worked as a Latin teacher at public high schools in Chesterfield and Henrico counties before returning to Randolph-Macon.

[1][2] Roxane Gilmore later became a classics professor at Randolph–Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, where she taught Latin and a range of courses, including Greek and Roman history and literature, women in ancient literature, the history of Roman Britain, and epic poetry.

She's the first of a kind...In other places, even Arkansas, this happened a long time ago...We've had some very good, very active first ladies like Jeannie Baliles.

[2] Gilmore and her family moved out in April 1998 once construction began and returned to governor's residence in November 1999 following its $5 million renovation.

[4] Roxane Gilmore died following a lengthy illness on August 7, 2024, at the age of 70, just one day after her 47th wedding anniversary.