Longtime Newtown resident and volunteer for the Cyrenius Booth Library, Virginia Corcoran passed away on March 28, 2025 at her residence in New Horizons, Marlborough, Mass., surrounded by family and friends. She was a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday.

Virginia was an independent-minded woman who built a career when working women were uncommon. She gave vigorous, spirit-warming hugs. She was a graceful and talented athlete, both as a young woman and through her 80s. She loved modern sculpture and traditional Asian art. She drove fast, hated wearing seat belts and, although introverted, could dish out a salty retort when she felt disrespected. Through it all, she cared deeply about people, starting with family and extending to those in need.

She was born in Torrington, the seventh child in a family built by two Hungarian immigrants who had arrived in the US in the first years of the 1900s. Her older sisters (Betty, Rose, and Barbara) were Virginia’s lifelong friends; her brothers were important sounding boards for her. She went by the nickname “Penny” because of her shining brown eyes.

When she was in high school, a friend encouraged her to apply to be a camp counselor. She learned to swim, to play tennis and ski, all of which became lifelong passions. Virginia was 16 years old when the US entered World War II and watched her three brothers enlist in the Navy. (All three would survive the war.) She tried to join the WAVES, the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services, but her brothers urged her parents to stop her. Instead, she headed to Rhode Island to study business for two years.

Virginia returned to Connecticut to work in the state unemployment office, helping people apply for jobs, a position she loved. Later she found her calling — working in libraries and later in the English department at Sacred Heart University. With her sister Barbara, she traveled to Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe.

In her mid 30s, with a nudge from her mother, Virginia met Jack Corcoran, from New London, who was then living in Chicago and working for Argonne National Laboratories, the first of the post-war nuclear-research laboratories run by the US Department of Energy. He was also a book reader and a world traveler, having lived for a year after the War in Yokohama, Japan. After a brief courtship, they married and she moved with him to Chicago.

Two children later, they returned to Connecticut and eventually settled in Newtown. Virginia never quit working, taking evening shifts when the kids were tiny and later moving to days. She taught us about the things she loved: sports, the joy of shoveling snow and raking leaves, reading stories, listening to nature and relishing the outdoors. She plunged into her own reading of great books — which is how our family cat wound up with the dignified name of “Pushkin.”

She kept her own bank account for her entire life and took quiet pride in the way that her small pre-marriage stock market investments grew. Friends, and her children’s friends, were welcomed with cups of tea and carrot cake. She delivered Meals on Wheels to the housebound, and continued to work and volunteer with libraries through her late 70s.

In her final years, she and Jack relocated to Massachusetts to live near their son, Chris. She was a source of cheerfulness and love to everyone in the community where she and Jack lived. She keenly appreciated nature, especially birds.

Virginia will be deeply missed by her husband of 63 years, Jack Corcoran; their children, Chris and Katya (Concord, Mass.), and Betsy and George Anders (Burlingame, Calif.); her grandchildren, Peter and Emily; and a wide circle of nieces, nephews and friends. A celebration of her life will be held in Massachusetts in early June. In lieu of flowers, well-wishers are encouraged to donate to the Massachusetts Audubon Society (massaudubon.org) in Virginia’s honor.