Ginny Heinlein - belated

[JimC]

I couldn't find an earlier post about her death.
Virginia Doris Gerstenfeld Heinlein died January 18, 2003.
She established
The Heinlein Society
The Heinlein Prize Trust
The Heinlein Library Foundation
The Chair in Aerospace Engineering at the Annapolis Naval Academy

And she made great quince jelly.
I miss her terribly.

 

[Hugh]

And she made great quince jelly.

It sounds as if you knew her - would you be prepared to say some more?

 

[JimC]

She was a dear friend. I gave her Snowy (her last cat - a replacement for Pixel), and I sat by her bedside during her last stay in the hospital (alternating with her foster granddaughter Amy Baxter, and her friend Laura Heywood). She appointed me to the Board of Directors of the Library Foundation sometime roughly around 1990 or 1992 - I've lost track. Anyway, I'm still there all these years later.

I think my account of placing her ashes in the Pacific Ocean, returning her to Robert, is still available on the Heinlein Society website.

I will talk about generalities, but not much about specifics re either her or Robert.

 

[Hugh]

She was a dear friend. I gave her Snowy (her last cat - a replacement for Pixel), and I sat by her bedside during her last stay in the hospital (alternating with her foster granddaughter Amy Baxter, and her friend Laura Heywood). She appointed me to the Board of Directors of the Library Foundation sometime roughly around 1990 or 1992 - I've lost track. Anyway, I'm still there all these years later.

I think my account of placing her ashes in the Pacific Ocean, returning her to Robert, is still available on the Heinlein Society website.

I will talk about generalities, but not much about specifics re either her or Robert.

Thank you for posting this. That's lovely to hear.

I hope you don't mind my posting the link to your touching account:

Ginny's Ashes Join Robert's by Jim Cunningham - The Heinlein Society

Saturday, April 26, 2003, at about 5:30PM PDT, Ginny Heinlein's ashes joined Robert's in the Pacific Ocean. Following is an account of that day graciously provided by her friend James R. Cunningham. --Deb Houdek Rule (webmaster of this site) Virginia "Ginny" Heinlein (Virginia Doris Gerstenfeld)...

www.heinleinsociety.org

 

[JimC]

You're welcome. I appreciate that.
Ginny was my dearest friend. I love her still. She reminded me of a cross between a favorite cousin and my grandmother. I got hooked on Robert's work as a child because his representation of her as Hazel Stone in the Rolling Stones was amazingly close to my own grandmother's personality.

Ginny was quite young when Robert incorporated her into the elderly Hazel persona, but he got it right enough that the elderly Ginny was still recognizable in the elderly Hazel. One difference - Ginny was far more sophisticated than Hazel's default persona. though Hazel could emulate that too

I think that link is missing the last part of my account.
No it's there - it's just having trouble loading.

As an aside, the Heinlein Society is a great organization, but I've never been a member.

 

[JimC]

P.S. in the linked group photo, Amy is in the front in a red jacket, holding Jill. Amy's husband Louis is to her left. I'm just left of Louis, wearing a gray sweater and gray slacks. Ginny's international agent Ralph Vicinanza is left of and in front of me. My wife Lela is a couple of folks left of Ralph, wearing a red pants suit (her, not Ralph). Bill Patterson is left of Lela. Jerry Pournelle is wearing an off-white cap immediately to the right of Amy.

Too many friends in that photo are departed now.

 

[Ambrose]

Fascinating. I liked The Rolling Stones. Thanks, JimC.

 

[JimC]

Another aside. Ralph was one of the Executive Producer's of the TV series 'Flash Forward' in addition to being the author's agent. I was with him when he got the phone call that the Network was going ahead with the series, and I've never seen him so excited - he was usually pretty laid back.

 

[JimC]

I remember when Ralph first saw the portrait of Ginny and Robert that Kelly Freas gave me (I hang it in the Heinlein Reading Room of the Butler, Missouri Public Library - Robert's home town). Ralph had tears in his eyes. Another good person gone too soon. Kelly too.

 

[JimC]

I'm full of asides. Kelly was a darned good artist. He did a portrait of Robert that sold for about $15,000. The portrait of Robert and Ginny that he gave me was free. Chalk him and his wife Laura up as outstanding examples of humanity .

 

[JimC]

I was in Butler, Missouri yesterday for the annual Heinlein Library Foundation Board Meeting. Thought you guys might be interested in a few photos of the Library and of Robert's childhood home. Mods, if these aren't appropriate, please delete.

 

[JimC]

A couple more photos of the Heinlein Reading Room.
The portrait of Robert and Ginny was a gift from Kelly Freas.