Greenwich-Virginia Ruth O'Neil (nee Shea), 94, of Greenwich, shuffled off her mortal coil on Sunday, May 22, 2016, the result of a failure of an original-issue valve.  Fortunately, Virginia was not the sum of this part.

One of the fading Greatest Generation, Virginia was born in Elmira, NY along the banks of the mighty Chemung.  Virginia attended Southside High and eventually met one Harry J. O'Neil, a respected local and Elmira sports legend.  Virginia graduated from St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing as an RN.  Harry entered the U.S. Army and the two would marry in a small church in Atlanta, GA.

Harry served with distinction as a Lt. in WW II, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.  After the war, Harry briefly attended Alabama and then graduated from Syracuse.

Thus began Virginia's peripatetic existence as the wife of a high school teacher and coach at Syracuse, Rochester, Salamanca, Canandaigua, Gloversville and Pleasantville, NY, where the bulk of the time was spent, as Harry taught history and coached football in Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, NY. (Children popped up along the trail; Paul in Syracuse, Tim in Amsterdam and Elizabeth in Mt. Kisco).

The couple bought a vacant acre lot in the wilds of Westchester County at the end of Ridgeview Drive in Pleasantville and had a home built for a price which bears no relation to today's market.

In addition to tending the hearth, Virginia worked for years as an RN at the Mt. Kisco Medical Group.

There were no chic "bucket lists" in Virginia's time, however, in 1965 the family took a 10,200 mile trip across the country and back in an Oldsmobile station wagon.  And she and Harry did manage to travel through Europe, and they bought a small cottage in the West of Ireland, near on to Bantry.

Harry retired early and the couple bought an old fixer-upper on Rte. 153 just outside of Salem, NY.  They diligently worked to restore said home, however Harry became ill and succumbed in 1991.  The house was sold and a new home was built outside of Greenwich, which is where she resided at the time of her death.

Virginia's life spanned a remarkable period of human history and change, one which witnessed the destruction of wars; the intrigue of a cold war; a life which spanned B & W and Technicolor, and a wide array of gadgets. Warren Harding to Barack Obama.

"Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee/

Calls back the lovely April of her prime." -Shakespeare, Sonnet 3

The family will have services privately.