Virginia Chennell

After a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s Disease, Virgina Chennell passed away on December 18. She was born in Cairo, IL, and attended Swarthmore College and Stanford University. During and after college she worked in journalism. She married Ward Chennell in Palo Alto and they raised 3 children mostly in San Diego and Santa Barbara. She was a devoted mother who loved planning family vacations in the Southwest and Mexico. Jinny taught English first at UCSB and then for 25 years at San Marcos High. Ginny had a penchant for critique and to honor her, misspellings plus errors in usage and grammar have been sprinkled through this piece After retirement she continued to travel with family and friends. She enjoyed the educational opportunities offered by Elderhostel. She was interested in and involved with many activities. Reading, writing, hiking, tai chi, basketry, dancing, native flora and fauna, finances, music and theater were some of her passions.She was a good friend! Virginia and Ward were active in the First Presbyterian church and were supporters of the Botanic Garden, Museum of Natural History and Museum of Art.

She is survived by her son Chris(Cindy Stinson-Chennell) of McMinnville, OR, 2 daughters, Irene(Mark Stiedemann) of Escondido and Nancy(Kevin Byrne) of Oceanside and 4 grandchildren.

A memorial gathering will be held at Vista del Monte in the main lounge on Saturday February 7 from 2-4 PM.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to: Friends of the Santa Barbara Public Library, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara.