Virginia Lee (Rogers) Smith, 101, died Thursday, March 14, 2019, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Born December 17, 1917, in Kansas City, Missouri, she was the only child of Frank and Olah (Stumpff) Rogers. Her father was a photographer who featured Virginia in his advertising brochures and chronicled her early years with beautiful photos. Photography would remain a force throughout her life. The family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, around 1920, and later to Omaha, where her father worked as a field representative for Eastman Kodak. Virginia was very close to her grandmother Jennie, who lived with the family and who would always occupy a special place in her heart.
Virginia's plans to attend the University of Nebraska ended when her mother died suddenly a few weeks after her high school graduation. Virginia, her father and grandmother temporarily relocated to Denver. Her happiest memory of that difficult time was adopting her dog Skippy. Unable to face a return to Omaha, her father requested a permanent transfer and they moved to Minneapolis in 1935. Virginia worked as a model and was featured in glamorous clothing ads for major department stores. She met her future husband, Frank Earl Smith, an aspiring photographer, on a photo shoot in a city park. After Frank moved to Detroit to work for General Motors Photographic Division, Virginia’s family relocated to the Chicago area. Virginia and Frank married in Michigan in 1942. They had three sons: Frank Alfred, Barry Elliot, and Martin Scott; they were her pride and joy.
Born in the year of America’s entry into World War 1, Virginia lived through the heady years of the 1920s, the Great Depression, World War 2, the cold war, the space race and the technology boom. In 1950, Virginia contracted polio; her survival attests to her strength and indomitable spirit. She went to the polls in every election. She had strong political opinions and said she usually cancelled the vote of her husband. Her flair for landscaping led her to become a Master Gardener, one of the first in Michigan. Throughout her life Virginia was passionate about reading. When her sons were young, she helped establish the school library. She was an early supporter of the effort to found the Bloomfield Township Library, culminating in its opening in 1964. When her sons were older, she was employed by the Birmingham and Bloomfield Township libraries. Later, Virginia served as president of the Friends of the Bloomfield Township Public Library and president of the Library Board of Trustees. She loved the Friends’ bookshop, started the Second Saturday monthly booksale, and remained a faithful volunteer, last working the weekend book sale this February. She will be missed by her library friends and many others from her long life, including Roni who was her loyal companion during the last few years.
What Virginia loved: Family trips out West and to Minnesota. Native American art, especially porcupine quill baskets. Petoskey stones. Picnics at Kensington Metropark. Lake Michigan sunsets at Empire and Cross Village. Watching freighters along the St. Mary’s River in Canada, keeping a log as they passed by, and cheering when her children’s antics could coax a master salute from the ship’s pilot. Boblo Island. A long line of cats: Snowball, Sylvester Stupid, George, Fredericka, Victoria, Henry, and Jennie. Jigsaw puzzles. Henry Moore sculptures at Frederik Meijer Gardens. Her home, completed in 1954, which the entire family participated in building, and where she still lived. Her many gardens with unusual plants like her favorite Cornelian cherry tree. Greenfield Village. Decorating her home for Christmas, using dolls and toys from her childhood. Motawi tiles. Quilts, ones she made and family quilts from the Civil War era. Tulips. Driving fast in her 1969 orange Corvette and walking slowly along the Lake Michigan shore, eyes down, watching for elusive Petoskey stones.
Virginia lived a vibrant life to the very end. Despite losses and health setbacks in recent years, she was resilient and determined to live life as fully as she could as long as she could. She viewed her life as a series of chapters, and despite some sad ones, she was able to turn the page on a new one with optimism. She met a newborn great-granddaughter in January, passing along her own baby quilt from 1917. Spring planting season was on her radar - a list of new perennials ready for a new season of growth. Always the focus on new chapters.
Virginia lost her husband Frank in 1991, her sons Martin in 1989 and Barry in 2015. She leaves her son Frank and his wife, Susan Kheder; her grandson Graham and his wife, Sara Crider, their new daughter Amalia; her grandson Connor; her niece Barbara (Rob) Erickson, her daughter-in-law Janet Smith, and her last cat Jennie, who was waiting for Virginia to come back home.
There will be a celebration of Virginia’s life at a later date. Donations in Virginia’s memory may be made to the Bloomfield Township Public Library, 1099 Lone Pine Road, Bloomfield Township, MI 48302.
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