**Please consider a donation to the St. Luke’s Building Fund https://stlukesraleigh.org/pastor-update/ in lieu of flowers

Virginia Rose Taylor, a six-year resident of the Raleigh area, died Saturday the 17th of June at the home she shared with her son Bob and his family.

Born Virginia Speicher in 1925 in Germania, Ontario, she learned piano at a young age by playing for dances with her Dad, a locally renowned fiddler. She received formal training as a teacher and musician, and held a degree from the Toronto Conservatory.

As a young woman Virginia taught school in the remote town of Sioux Lookout on Hudson Bay, and other locations in rural Ontario. She travelled extensively and fearlessly through North America, Europe, Scandinavia and Great Britain, in a time when hitchhiking was an acceptable mode of transportation and long-range travel plans were optional.

After WWII, she taught children of Canadian, American and British servicemen at base schools in Germany. There she met and married dashing RAF navigator Robert Taylor, and had their first son Stephen. The young family relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1960, and had two more children, Robert and James.

They came to the United States in 1964 and lived in Hyde Park, NY for over 40 years. Virginia was the organist at Regina Coeli Catholic church for most of that time, and also taught private piano lessons and Catholic catechism to hundreds of area children.

Still an intrepid traveler, Ginny would make yearly trips to visit her family in Canada with her three sons, for years driving the same VW beetle she used to criss-cross Europe. Her family would gather for epic musical parties, playing fiddles, guitars, banjos and of course piano, packing an impossible number of people and volume of music and love into her parents’ tiny home.

Widowed in her 60’s, Ginny’s love of travel blossomed again, as she took every affordable opportunity to enjoy elder hostels and cruises to Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, the Holy Land and many other exotic destinations. She kept detailed travel logs and photo albums of her adventures, and would lovingly write up her stories to share with friends and family.

At the still-young age of 81, Ginny moved to Buffalo to live with her son Jim, and escape the rigors of maintaining a home by herself. She spent five years there and made many wonderful friends at St. Mary’s parish in East Amherst NY. Eventually the Buffalo winters and her failing health drove Ginny south to live her son Bob, daughter-in-law Marie and six grandchildren in Raleigh, NC. She enjoyed saying the rosary every day, and especially before Mass at St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church.

Everyone who knew Ginny was enriched and uplifted by her many songs and stories; her flair for the dramatic ensured they never got old. Her life was well centered on God and her Catholic faith, music, and her love of family and many friends. No one ever used the words “I love you” more widely, freely or genuinely. Virginia had the wonderful gift to see only the best in others, and make even a passing acquaintance feel like a treasured friend.

Virginia is preceded in death by her husband Robert, her parents, Charles and Ida Speicher, and her sister Kay Lyndon. She is survived by her sister Genevieve, son Stephen and wife Carol, son Robert and wife Marie, son James, and grandchildren Gregory, Elizabeth, Robert, Angela, Michael and Rebecca.