Moving to Arizona with Ken Piper

Over the decade after Paul Galvin's death, Virginia continued her philanthropic work and took on leadership roles in Chicago-area organizations. She formed close, enduring friendships with Nell Hubata and Laura Grafman, who later moved with husband Dayton to Arizona in 1976. Virginia also began to go out with male companions in the mid-'60s. In the latter part of the decade, Kenneth M. Piper, a Motorola executive, began a determined effort to win Virginia. Ken and Virginia married on December 30, 1969, at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Virginia's marriage to Paul had been marked by a spirit of loving mentorship and graceful progression into a poised maturity. Her marriage to Ken was characterized by his gift of a certain natural, irresistible leisure, a gaiety that offered Virginia the opportunity to relax and simply be herself. ...

In her mid-fifties, Virginia was an astute, confident business woman, a spiritually motivated philanthropist, but she was also-by temperament and particularly in her personal life-deeply romantic in her tastes. To surround herself with an atmosphere of beauty and serenity was crucial to her sensibilities. Whether she was out in public or at home, she was elegant in her dress and gracious and soft-spoken in her manner. ... Friends and relatives who knew her best affirm that her tastes in fashion, furnishings, art, music, in civility itself, were traditional, classic, refined, and yet-without contradiction-down-to-earth. She embodied the Greek principles of order, elegance, and simplicity, all symbolized by her own favorite flower, the rose, the same flower Ken Piper sent daily in bouquets to Virginia during his courtship. It is not difficult to imagine how her tastes developed over the years, from the time when she was a young woman forced to conserve because of the Great Depression to the years of her marriage to Paul, who delighted in helping her widen and cultivate her tastes, and finally to her years with Ken, who encouraged Virginia to relax into her own life and give herself permission to revel in happiness.

Soon after her parents' deaths [both in 1972], Virginia and Ken made a permanent move to Arizona in November 1972, purchasing a home under construction in Paradise Valley and having it custom-finished according to their specifications. - From her spacious, light-filled home office, Virginia continued to conduct a massive volume of personal and business correspondence, the former handwritten on cards or her custom-made blue-bordered stationery, the latter typed on the old manual Royal typewriter that she used to the end of her days, refusing all offers of electric typewriters, word processors, or computers. Every bit of correspondence that made its way off Virginia's enormous desk was from her own hand, a phenomenal feat indicating the heart and sincerity she placed in her relationships with people...

During the late afternoon of January 21, 1975, Ken came into the house from working in the garden, a favorite activity, and began to prepare his and Virginia's customary cocktails. Standing at the kitchen sink, with her back turned to him, Virginia listened as her husband related an amusing incident from the day's business luncheon. The phone rang, and Ken answered but then suddenly fell silent. Virginia turned to find him slumped in a chair beside the phone, his face constricted. He was having trouble breathing. Less than two minutes later, Ken Piper, a vibrant man of sixty-four, who had received a clean bill of health from his doctor earlier that day, was dead. The shock to Virginia was devastating.

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