Virginia Inness-Brown Conn died peacefully at home in East Boothbay, Maine on Monday, October 17, 2011. She was 84.

Mrs. Conn, born January 28, 1927 in Plandome, Long Island, New York,was the daughter of Hugh Alwyn Inness-Brown and Virginia Portia (Royall) Inness-Brown formerly of New York City and East Boothbay, Maine. Her grandparents, John A. Royall and Agatha Royall, came to East Boothbay in 1898 as summer residents and became permanent residents in 1929. Her paternal grandparents lived in Charleston, S.C.

Although she grew up in Plandome, Mrs. Conn spent most of her childhood summers in Maine where she learned to cook at her grandmother's knee and served shore dinners at her uncle Robert Royall's restaurant and lobster pound on Little River.

She was educated at Warrenton Country Day School in Warrenton, Virginia and Smith College. She married Robert Henry Conn on July 6, 1946. Thus began a long and colorful career as a Navy wife and writer. While raising five children, Mrs. Conn was a reporter, City Editor and columnist for the Sanford Herald, Sanford, Florida, Editor and columnist of the Brighton Pittsford Post, Rochester, New York, syndicated columnist for several upstate New York newspapers, a writer and editor of various Navy publications with the Navy Office of Information, assistant editor of NAVY, the monthly magazine of the Navy League, Washington D.C., and a public affairs specialist for the David Taylor Naval Research and Development Center in Carderock, Maryland, where she wrote, directed and produced more than 60 documentary and technical films. She won several industry awards for the films she produced. In 1985 she was invited to be ship’s sponsor for the USS Key West (SSN722). She retired on December 30, 1989, first to the home she and Bob built in Kilmarnock, Virginia and then to her childhood home (Ocean Harbor) on Little River in East Boothbay in 1999.

In Kilmarnock, she served on the board of The Lancaster Community Library, started the Northern Neck recycling program and the Dividing Creek Association, an environmental watch group. Locally, she was known for her entertaining correspondent columns for the Boothbay Register, serving as a weekly columnist for both the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club as well as for East Boothbay. She was an active volunteer for the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay Region Land Trust and served on the Board of Trustees of the Boothbay Region YMCA and the Congregational Church. She enjoyed writing, sailing, bridge, cooking, reading, photography and most of all- a good party.

Mrs. Conn is survived by her husband of 65 years, The Honorable Robert H. Conn, and their five children: The Rev. Portia Royall Hirschman (and husband Rick) of Monrovia, Maryland, Judith Virginia Goodnow (and husband Michael Bujnowski) of Bow, New Hampshire, Robert H. Conn, Jr. (and wife Lisa) of West Boothbay Harbor, Maine, Patricia Inness Conn Royall of Richmond, Maine and Catherine Elizabeth Conn of East Boothbay, Maine. She also leaves ten grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, many nieces and nephews, her aunt and childhood friend Louise Royall of East Boothbay, as well as her beloved yellow lab, Lily.
A memorial service will be held at 4 pm on Friday, October 21, 2011, at the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in her name to:

Boothbay Region YMCA
P.O. Box 500
Boothbay Harbor, Maine 04538

You are invited to share your condolences, photos and memories with the Conn family by visiting their Book of Memories at www.hallfuneralhomes.com


Arrangements are under the care of Simmons, Harrington & Hall Funeral Home, Boothbay.