Charlotte, NC - Virginia Lee (Pettey) Page Halbert, 99, passed away on August 3, 2020 at Aldersgate. She was born on April 30, 1921 in Washington, DC, a daughter of the late George Washington Pettey and Mary Elizabeth Strobel. She grew up in the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast Washington with sisters Mary Annette (Petty) Newman and Sarah Lyndell (Pettey) Hawthorne.
Known to many as “Lee” and “Ginny”, she won a scholarship and was among the first women to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Washington DC and was a graduate of Benjamin Franklin University. Following in her father’s footsteps, she spent many years putting her accounting expertise to work in public service at the Department of Justice. During WWII her department was responsible for the federal government’s securing and management of German-owned corporate assets in the United States.
In 1948 she married William I. “Bill” Page of North Carolina who worked throughout his career for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and with whom she loved to travel. They lived happily together for many years in the Paint Branch Farms neighborhood of Silver Spring MD, where she stayed close with her sister Mary Annette and her husband William J. Newman. She was an accomplished photographer and created travelogues of her international adventures including visits to China and Mexico, as well as 49 states, and she and Bill Page gladly shared them with friends in both Maryland and later in North Carolina where they retired and where Bill later died.
In 2003 Virginia Lee Page married Harry Halbert, whom she met at Aldersgate. They spent their many joy-filled later years living independently and joining happily in events locally with Harry’s extended family and singing and volunteering together at the United Methodist Church in Charlotte. She is survived by members of the Newman, Halbert & DuPont families, and will be remembered for her bright mind, love of books and poetry, care for animals, and gentle nature.
Services will be private for the family.
Memorial contributions may be made to The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
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