The obituary, shown below, was originally published in the October 27, 2012
issue of
The Daily Local News (West Chester, PA).
Virginia Egolf of Downingtown
Virginia Egolf, age 87, of St. Martha Manor, Downingtown, died on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. Virginia was born in Madison, Maine, to Paul and Rosaria (nee DiNorscia) Della Pelle in 1925. She was a 1943 graduate of Kennett Consolidated High School where she excelled in basketball and jitterbugging. She even won a jitterbug contest! She then attended Memorial Hospital Nursing School in Wilmington, Delaware. Upon graduation in 1946, she and her best friend, LJ, travelled to Minneapolis, Minnesota to care for pediatric, iron lung polio patients under the tutelage of the famous Sister Kenny, “Mother of Physical Therapy.” Married life brought her to Baltimore, Md. where she worked in many of the area’s top hospitals. Nursing was always her first love, and she poured her heart and soul into it. When rheumatoid arth-ritis took away her ability to do her job according to the high standards she held, she retired from Maryland Rehabilitation Center. She then had time to indulge in her avocations: archeology, bible history, and bible study. She is predeceased by her mother Rose, father Paul and brother Ralph. She is survived by three children; Cheryl Della Pelle and her husband Ed Donahue of Litchfield, Conn., Karen Hess and husband Richard of Orrtanna, Pa. and Robert Scott Egolf and wife Tracey of Denver, Colo. She is also survived by five grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and nieces and nephews. Her sister Antoinette Rubino resides in Malvern, Pa. A Memorial Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Monday morning, November 12, 2012 at St. Patrick’s Church, 212 Meredith Street, Kennett Square, Pa. Burial will follow in St. Patrick’s Cemetery. Arrangements by the Kuzo & Grieco Funeral Home, Kennett Square,Pa.