GARCIA, Virginia May, 94, died on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Virginia was born in 
Dayton, Ohio April 28, 1919, the only child of Beatrice Jeremiah (Johns) and Austin 
Talmadge Jeremiah. She graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1937 and 
Otterbein College in 1941. Virginia taught school in Dayton, in New Jersey, and at 
Walter Shade and Harry Russell Elementary Schools in West Carrollton. All her life 
Virginia stood up for basic principles: devotion to family, education and reading, 
civil rights, love of nature and kindness to animals, and enjoyment of the performing 
arts. A woman ahead of her time, Virginia was banished from her church because 
she invited a local black gospel group to perform for her church youth group. She 
shocked her family by first marrying a Jew, and then a Mexican. During the War years, 
she almost lost a job with the Wisconsin Power and Light when she suggested office 
workers should join the lineman's union, since they received the same raises the 
union bargained for. She was thrilled she lived to see an African-American elected 
president. Virginia's lifelong passion was theater. She saw some of the greatest 
performers of the 20th century, including Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore, William 
Powell, Tallulah Bankhead and Katherine Cornell, not to mention Gypsy Rose Lee 
and Sally Rand. She saw Paul Robeson, Uta Hagen and José Ferrer in Othello, and 
Marlon Brando in Streetcar. Even more than watching theater, Virginia loved to 
perform. She cried the first time for not being cast in a part she coveted, in 
kindergarten. She performed on stage in high school and college, and delighted
 Dayton audiences for many years in community theater. She was inducted into the 
Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame in 2002. Virginia is survived by two children, Ricardo 
Garcia (wife, Isabel) of Bellbrook, and Leslie Garcia (partner, Douglas Seibert) of 
Spring Valley, and two ex-husbands, Carl Djerassi of Palo Alto, CA and Rodrigo 
Garcia of Dayton. The family will receive friends on Sunday, July 7th from 2:00-5:00 
p.m.at Reis Legacy Center Meyer-Boehmer Chapel, 6661 Clyo Rd., Centerville. In 
lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Virginia's memory to Humane Society of 
Greater Dayton, 1661 Nicholas Rd., Dayton, OH 45417. Words of encouragement 
may be sent to www.reislegacycenter.com. And now a final bow, the curtain falls, but
applause still echoes....
Published in Dayton Daily News on July 4, 2013 

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