Virginia was born on June 28th, 1920 to Lewis and Marguerite Broyles (shown here in a photo taken later). Alongside her younger brother Dan, who now lives in Springfield, Virginia, she spent her first 10 years in Chicago and in Savannah, Tennessee.

Despite the hardships of the Depression years, Virginia was able to graduate from Rosary College, where she excelled as a student.

Virginia studied for a master’s degree in Classics at the University of Chicago, where she met Michael Jameson in a Thucydides class in 1941. While Michael served in the Navy, Virginia studied at Johns Hopkins. They were married on June 8th, 1946. Their first of many foreign trips together took them to Greece.

In Columbia, Missouri and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Virginia gave birth to four sons, bringing them up and managing the household while Michael rapidly rose through the ranks at the University of Pennsylvania. The young family spent one sabbatical year in England and one in Italy.

As her sons progressed toward and through high school, Virginia taught Latin so as to help finance their education in private schools such as the Germantown Friends’ School. The family spent several summers in Maine, often with their friends the Ostwalds and the Gordons. In 1965–1966, they spent a sabbatical year in Greece.

While managing the immense house in Germantown to which the family had moved in 1967, often entertaining faculty and students from the University of Pennsylvania, Virginia continued to help her sons get through high school and college. She and Michael moved to Palo Alto and Stanford in 1976.

After Michael’s retirement from Stanford, he and Virginia often visited other universities. They also regularly met up with their sons for family reunions, including the celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary in Sligo, Ireland.

Despite weakening health after her 80th birthday, Virginia retained her taciturn good nature throughout her last decade, thanks in large part to the kindness of her neighbors and the expert attention that she received during her regular visits to Rosener House. She enjoyed visits from her sons and – later in the decade – her daughters-in-law Karin and Ikuko and her granddaughter Maya.

After Michael’s death in August of 2004, Virginia was able to stay in their house throughout her last five years thanks to the excellent care and companionship of the Mahe family, Lois Day, and (during her last months) the dedicated employees of Pathways. As Virginia gradually slipped away in May of 2009, her sons gathered again in Palo Alto to bid her good-bye.