Virginia Arlene (Phelps) Hendee was born on September 10, 1921, in Northampton, Massachusetts, a historic Connecticut River Valley community known for its long educational and cultural traditions. (AncientFaces)

Raised in western Massachusetts during the interwar years, Virginia came of age at a time when education and clerical training opened new professional opportunities for young women. She attended and graduated from the Northampton Commercial College, where she received business and administrative training that prepared her for office and government service.

During World War II, Virginia answered the nation’s call to service by joining the United States Navy, serving as a Yeoman in Washington, D.C. In this administrative role, she contributed to wartime operations through clerical, personnel, and communications duties essential to the Navy’s expanding wartime bureaucracy. Like many women of her generation, her service reflected the vital role played by women in supporting military readiness on the home front.

Following the war, she married Howard Elmer Hendee (1925–1992), a native of Webster, New York. Together, they built a family centered on hard work, community, and strong family ties. The couple had three children:

• Joanne (Jody) Hendee
• Paul Edwin Hendee
• Stephen Phelps Hendee

The family later lived in the Rochester and Webster, New York area, where they raised their children and maintained close connections to extended family traditions. (the-hendees.com)

Virginia is remembered within her family as a caring and devoted mother and as an early enthusiast of genealogy. In the mid-1960s—well before the digital age—she conducted family history research using libraries and correspondence networks, compiling handwritten genealogical notes that later inspired the next generation to continue Hendee family research. (the-hendees.com)

Her efforts preserved important ancestral information and helped spark a lasting interest in family heritage among her descendants.  Today, as of this posting 02/25/2026, she is 104 years old and living in South Florida.  As an authors note:  This is the type person you need to find and interview in your family.