Virginia Lee Maury Werth Hutcheson, of Gloucester and Norfolk, passed away on Feb. 14, 2018 peacefully at Leigh Hall Assisted Living facility where she had been living.
She was born at “Lyal Park,” a family home, in Pikesville, Maryland on June 8, 1915. She was the daughter of Matthew Fontaine Maury Werth, a native of Richmond, Virginia, and Sallie Ann Warfield Cockey a native of Pikesville.
Virginia Lee graduated from the Harcum Prep School of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in the senior class of 1933, where she studied playing the piano and related subjects. She then attended Wells College in Aurora, New York as part of the class of 1937. She went on to receive her secretarial training from the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in New York City.
As a great-granddaughter of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury “Path Finder of the Seas,” Virginia Lee was called upon to travel to San Francisco, California in 1938 to christen the U.S. Naval Destroyer “Maury.” Over the next few years, she worked as a secretary for The Wright School, the Allentown Pennsylvania Community Chest, and Heyl Bond Miller Architects before moving to Virginia in 1948. Then she joined her parents retired at “Dunham Massie” in the Ware Neck area of Gloucester.
Upon settling in Virginia, Virginia Lee began working in the Colonial Williamsburg Department of Education during the formative years of what was to become Colonial Williamsburg. During this same time, she met Robert Francis Hutcheson, a native of Gloucester, who lived at Fiddler’s Green Farm, helping his parents care for the dairy farm. She married Robert on Oct. 1, 1949 and they settled at “Second Fiddle,” the farm he had purchased adjacent to his parent’s home. For the next 50 years, Virginia Lee taught piano lessons out of her home and many of her former students still live in the Gloucester area. From time to time, she served as organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Gloucester and as piano accompanist.
After Robert passed away in 1985, Virginia Lee continued to live at “Second Fiddle” until 2010 when she moved to live with her eldest son in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She stayed with him until 2016 when she entered the Leigh Hall Assisted Living Facility in Norfolk, where she lived until her passing.
Virginia Lee is survived by her brother, Matthew Fontaine Maury Werth and by her two sons, Robert Francis Hutcheson Jr. and Matthew Fontaine Maury Hutcheson. She leaves behind four grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren as well as countless friends, and piano students who remember her fondly.
A graveside service was held on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018 at 3 p.m. at Ware Church Cemetery, Gloucester.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Gloucester Salvation Army.
Andrews Funeral Home & Crematory was in charge of arrangements.