Virginia Stephens

VIRGINIA ANN (BERRY) STEPHENS

FEBRUARY 20, 1943 - JULY 19, 2025

The world lost a wonderful and caring person with the passing of Virginia on July 19, 2025. She was born in Putnam County, Indiana to Mary Margaret and Harold Martin Berry on February 20, 1943, and grew up, along with two sisters and three brothers, on the family farm, taking many of her life's ethics from farming community values.

She attended elementary school in Putnamville, where her teachers' examples later influenced her to seek a career in education. After high school in Greencastle, she attended Indiana State University, graduating in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education. She soon started teaching fifth and sixth grade classes in Indiana schools.

Virginia met Howard Stephens, a Purdue University graduate student, while visiting a friend at the school. They fell in love and were married June 9, 1968 in the Putnamville church, the oldest continuously used church in Indiana.

Howard's degree in research led them to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was employed at Sandia National Laboratories, and Virginia's teaching credentials won her a position as a Teacher-Supervisor for the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Head Start Program. Later she taught in a private preschool, and volunteered for tutoring children's reading programs.

Children (adults, also) warmed to Virginia's positive and empathetic nature. Over the years, she influenced many children to love reading, and further their learning.

Virginia had a secondary career in technical writing that combined her teaching skills with knowledge gained from post-graduate technology courses. She served as a technical writer for Honeywell, Inc., working on avionics manuals for Air Force aircraft, and as a freelance technical writer and editor. She was a member of a team that produced award-winning renewable energy outreach and education media for the state of New Mexico's Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources department.

Virginia also had a deep love of beauty and art (painting. music, poetry, dance. flowers...) and a sense of adventure, with a love of sailing (learned on Indiana Lakes) that took her and Howard to lakes and coastal waters, both foreign and domestic.

Virginia is survived by her husband of fifty-seven years, Howard; two sisters, Carolyn Shuee and Mary Lash; and three brothers, Milton, Keith, and Jack Berry, and their children and grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, August 29, 2025 in Carter Hall, La Vida Llena retirement community, 10501 Lagrima De Oro Rd. NE Albuquerque, NM 87111.