Virginia Taylor Bradford died peacefully Nov. 16, 1999 due to causes incident to age. She was a refined, loving mother, grandmother and sister who will be greatly missed.
She was born Sept. 3, 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Frank C. and Bessie T. Taylor. She was the oldest of six children. Virginia grew up in Salt Lake City where she became very useful to many as an accomplished piano accompanist and teacher.Piano lessons began when she was nine and a half years old, and at twelve, she was playing for church functions, school classes, dancing classes and movie theaters. As a young girl, she loved athletics and was on the track team where she won races in Wyoming and received a first place in hurdles in the Salt Lake City School District. She was also captain of the LDS High School swim team. At sixteen, she auditioned for Pete Christensen's studio of ballet, where she ended up playing for ten years which enabled her to put herself through college during the depression. She graduated from the University of Utah with a B.A. in Music and Speech with a high school teaching certificate. At the University of Utah she was a member of Spurs, Apmin Fine Arts Society, National Dramatic Fraternity, and Beta Delta Mu, a music fraternity. She was a charter member of Gamma Sigma which later became Delta Gamma.
Virginia met her husband, Henry D. Bradford while attending the University of Utah, and they were married June 27,1935 in the Salt Lake Temple. Virginia and Henry had four daughters and a son. Until her husband's death in 1957, she had been giving piano lessons to fifty students. To provide for her young family, she gave up her piano students, renewed her teaching certificate and began teaching 6th grade. Over a 16 year period, she taught at Webster, Riverside, Hamilton, Bonneville and Edison elementary schools.
Virginia accompanied the Swanee Singers, a professional singing group, for five years and toured through the northwest giving concerts along the way. She performed in the Assembly Hall playing Schumann's Piano Concerto with her sister, the late Helen Taylor Johannesen.
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she has played the piano and organ for every auxiliary in her various wards and stakes and served in many musical teaching capacities in her church and community where she was respected for her devoted, faithful service.
Virginia is survived by her five children: Geraldine B. Russell, Salt Lake City; Marilyn B. Cutler (Kent), Salt Lake City; Annette B. Dunford (Wyn), Seattle, Washington; Barbara B. Brinton (Jim), Provo; and John Henry Bradford, Salt Lake City; 21 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren; sisters: June T. Matheson and Beverley T. Sorenson, both from Salt Lake City. She was preceded in death by her sister Helen T. Johnannesen, and brothers Joseph F. Taylor and Robert C. Taylor.
Funeral Services will be held Saturday, Nov. 20, 1999 at 11 a.m. at the Monument Park Third Ward, 2115 Roosevelt Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah. Friends may call Friday, November 19th from 6-8 p.m. at Russon Brothers Mortuary, 255 South 200 East, Salt Lake City, and on Saturday, November 20th at the Church between 9:30 and 10:45 a.m. prior to the services. Interment, Salt Lake City Cemetery.