Virginia “Ginny” Jennings passed away on Feb. 23, 2022, at the Jefferson Healthcare Medical Center in Port Townsend, Washington. The only daughter of Dorothy and Wilfred Jennings, she was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.
She graduated from Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, Ohio in 1954 and taught music in Mentor, Ohio from 1954 to 1958. In 1959 she received a graduate degree in Music from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. She taught instrumental music in Parma, Ohio from 1959 to 1985. In addition to teaching, she was active with the Cleveland Hiking Club and with the Girl Scouts as a Senior troop leader and as a camp counselor.
While in college she worked as a counselor at Girl Scout Camp Robbinswold here on the Hood Canal and fell in love with the Olympics. So, after retiring in 1985, she came straight to Cape George and has thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics and living in Port Townsend. Since coming here, she was active in Klahane Hiking Club, taught numerous 55 Alive classes, and was a volunteer registrar for the Jefferson County Historical Society’s museum. She was also active in Admiralty Audubon and with Friends of the Jefferson County Library. Besides those, her very special interests were hiking and backpacking, attending classical music performances, and taking Elderhostel/Road Scholar trips in the U.S. and abroad. She shared a home, hiked, and traveled with her friend Marion Davis from 1974 until Marion’s death in 2014.
While she had numerous health issues in her last year her motto was "I’d rather wear out being active than rust out doing nothing."
In lieu of flowers please consider donating to one of her favorite causes; the Jefferson Land Trust, or the Jefferson County Historical Society.
