Virginia Alice McCoubrey (nee Waldecker), 95, died peacefully at home under hospice care on November 10, 2023. Virginia was born on Valentine’s Day, 1928, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Her family had a farm, and she attended a one-room schoolhouse. Jini attended Antioch College for two life-changing years before completing her undergraduate degree at Wayne State University and The New School for Social Research. She married David McCoubrey in 1952, and they raised three children in Sea Cliff, New York, and Wayland. Following their divorce, Jini obtained a master’s degree in library science at Simmons College. She worked as a librarian, primarily at Westwood High School, where she advised the international student exchange program. Jini maintained friendships with many of her students at home and abroad. She enjoyed an active retirement in Concord as an official visitor guide and program coordinator at the Council on Aging, where she also led the low-vision/vision-impaired support group.
Jini brought her values, intellect, and care for others to all her endeavors. On Long Island in the 1960s, she challenged housing discrimination by posing as a prospective tenant seeking apartments that had been refused to people of color. Jini and Dave hosted several backyard hootenannies to raise money for the NAACP. They also co-founded the Unitarian Fellowship at Muttontown, New York. Later, she organized books for the prison ministry of First Parish in Concord.
Jini planted gardens wherever she lived, including her notable cottage garden on Millbrook Road and her marigold display on her deck at Concord Greene, home to her large collection of rooster art that she never sought. She loved to read throughout her life and she traveled regularly in her retirement, often to England. Jini made many friends and deeply appreciated her women’s group in Concord. She loved to entertain, especially her grandchildren. She found ways to nurture their unique personalities and kept individual photo albums for each of them.
Virginia is survived by her children, Catherine McCoubrey (David Tatgenhorst), Anne Wilson, and David McCoubrey, Jr.; her grandchildren, Elijah Tatgenhorst, Jessica Wilson, Nathan Wilson, David McCoubrey, III, Brenna McCoubrey, and Owen McCoubrey; her sister, Ann Leland, and her nieces and nephews.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, May 11, at 2 p.m., followed by a reception, at First Parish in Concord. The service will also be on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87423639310.
