Virginia Cannon, 80, of Melbourne, Florida, passed over to the other side on January 22, 2016, after a brief hospitalization.
She was born on March 13, 1935, in San Francisco, the city that remained closest to her heart until she took her last breaths. Her parents were Nicholas Oprian and his wife Helen (nee Lotrian).
Virginia's passions were politics, books, and her four childrenall of whom survive her: Carl Michael Cannon of Arlington, Va.; (Sharon) David Jefferson Cannon of Bellingham Washington; Judith Phyllis Cannon of Indialantic, Florida (John McMorris); and Jack Nicholas Cannon of Quincy, Massachusetts (Beth).
She also had several grandchildren: Nicholas, Kelly, Tiffany, Stephanie, Nathan, Grace, Abigail, and Thomas, as well as five great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her brother, Daniel D. Oprian of Belmont, Massachusetts.
A graduate of Mission High School in San Francisco, "Ginny," as she was known to her friends, had a long and varied career. She volunteered on political campaigns in the Bay Area, taught preschool, assisted her then-husband Lou Cannon as a researcher on his early books on California politics, and ran a copying shop in Washington, D.C. under contract to the Federal Communications Commission.
Besides San Francisco, Ginny lived, at one time or another, in numerous California cities, including: Pleasant Hill, Merced, San Jose, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. Once she moved East, she lived in Northern Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland before retiring to Florida in 2002 to live near her daughter Judy and her family.
Virginia's faith journey was quintessentially American: Although her parents were Romanian-Orthodox, as a young mother she and her husband tried out several Protestant denominations before settling on the Congregational Church, which became the United Church of Christ. Ginny's last church family was the Riviera United Church of Christ in Palm Bay, where the motto is, "God's Love Has No Strings Attached."
A reluctant pet-owner as a young woman (her kids were always bringing home cats and dogs), later in life she became a devoted caretaker and buddy to two nearly feral cats bequeathed to her by granddaughter Stephanie.
While reserved by nature, Ginny possessed a droll wit, and faced adversitymajor heart surgery, for examplewith brave equanimity.
She was sweet and kind without being timid or meek. She loved movies and grand opera, cooked Romanian-accented comfort food, and was a patient listener. Her political hero was Eleanor Roosevelt. Her favorite pursuit was reading, and her eclectic tastes in books were a source of wonder and inspiration to her family and friends. Ginny devoured political biographies and literary masterpieces alikealong with romance novels and murder mysteries.
The latter genre could be called her guilty pleasure. Here, it can be said that her roving mind truly asserted itself: Not only the novels of Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie, but also exotic treasures such as the "Martin Beck" series by Swedish authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, and Alexander McCall Smith's whodunits set in Botswana about a detective agency run by Precious Ramotswe, a smart and loving woman to whom Virginia Cannon bore more than a passing resemblance.
She will be missed very much. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation, 415 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20017.