Virginia G. Kiely

Virginia Kiely, 98, of West Hartford, passed away peacefully at home on Thursday, April 6, 2023. Born in Hartford on Christmas Day, 1924, the daughter of Selden K. Griffen and Marguerite Rothbrust Griffen, she grew up and lived in Newington, CT until she met her dashing late husband, Arthur J. Kiely Jr at the Hartford Courant where they both were employed. Virginia and Art were married for 57 years, until Art’s death in 2005. Virginia was a graduate of Mount St Joseph Academy and Cambridge Secretarial School and would have graduated from Hartford College for Women if she had not decided to skip the final exams and travel to Fort Bragg to see her brother off to war. Her first career was as a legal secretary working for Gilman and Marks. After raising her family, she returned to the workforce at Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and then the Hartford Board of Education, as Executive Administrative Assistant to the principal at Weaver High School. Virginia served as a member and officer of the Hartford Retired School Secretaries and Weaver HS Retired Staff associations, as well as past president for the West Hartford Belles. She was a member of St John’s Episcopal Church in West Hartford. She leaves daughter, Patricia of West Hartford, son, Christopher of Winsted, grandson Cooper Davis and wife Laura, grandson Luke Davis and wife Anastasia, four great grandchildren, Casper, Lewelyn, Linnea and Liliana, who knew her as “GG”, and many adoring nieces and nephews and close friends. She was predeceased by her brother, Selden K Griffen Jr. The family is grateful for the wonderful and compassionate care of Care at Home by JFS caregivers and staff at Aviva Hamilton Heights and Accent Hospice. Funeral services will be held Wednesday, April 19th at 1:00 pm in St. John’s Episcopal Church, 679 Farmington Ave., West Hartford. Burial will follow in Fairview Cemetery, West Hartford. Online expressions of sympathy may be made at www.molloyfuneralhome.com. In lieu of flowers please plant something this Spring and think of Virginia