Virginia McDonald, retired Air Force colonel

Posted 3/6/13

Virginia Louise “Ginny” McDonald, 68, of Chestnut Hill, one of the first two Air Force women selected as White House social aides, died of cancer Feb. 6 at the Falls Center Hospice in East Falls.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Virginia McDonald, retired Air Force colonel

Posted

Virginia Louise “Ginny” McDonald, 68, of Chestnut Hill, one of the first two Air Force women selected as White House social aides, died of cancer Feb. 6 at the Falls Center Hospice in East Falls.

While stationed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in the 1970s, Ms. McDonald served at the White House during the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

She entered the Air Force a year after graduating from Cabrini College in 1966 and served for 11 years on active duty and nine years in the Air Force Reserve, retiring in 1987 as a lieutenant colonel.

She retired in 2004 from the Philadelphia Division of Aviation at Philadelphia International Airport, where she had worked for 25 years.

She was a member of Skål, an international association of travel and tourism professionals.

Ms. McDonald was a graduate of St. Athanasius Parish School and Cardinal Dougherty High School.

She was a member of the Daughters of the British Empire and had volunteered at Monkey Business, a consignment shop formerly operated by Chestnut Hill Hospital.

She is survived by a twin sister, Nancy Mason; a sister, Denise Oliphant, and a brother Patrick McDonald, of Chestnut Hill.

Funeral services were held Feb. 11 at Our Mother of Consolation Church in Chestnut Hill with interment in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.

Memorial donations may be made to St. Joseph's Villa, 110 Wissahickon Ave., Flourtown, PA 19031, or the Women's (Military) Memorial Foundation, Dept. 560, Washington, DC 20042. – WF

obituaries