Tedeschi, Virginia (Stephens)
Virginia (Stephens) Tedeschi, a lifelong resident of Hartford, dedicated wife, loving mother and devoted grandmother, died at home February 21, 2024. She was 80. Virginia was descended from an early settler of America, Shadrack Stephens, who found his way to the New World from Wales a few years before the start of the Revolutionary War. An avid genealogist, she was immensely proud to discover her ancestors' contributions to the developing state of Connecticut.
Born on August 15, 1943 to Kenneth and Stella Stephens, Virginia graduated from Hartford Public High School in 1962 and went to work for the Royal Typewriter Co. She also worked at Aetna Insurance while attending the Morse School of Business at night.
In 1965, she met her future husband, Bruno, who had come to Hartford from the small Italian village of Pratola Peligna to visit with family. Their first encounter was a blind date to see pop singer Jim Pickney at the Bushnell. After a few months of dating, they were married in December 1965 in Hartford by a justice of the peace.
They set off for Italy in 1966, where they were married again in a Roman Catholic church in Raiano in a ceremony witnessed by family and friends of the groom. They remained in Italy on extended honeymoon, traveling extensively throughout the country in a Fiat 500 before returning to America in June 1966.
Having studied Latin in high school, Virginia quickly learned to speak and write Italian fluently and embraced her husband's family and the community of Pratolani, who had emigrated to Hartford and the surrounding area during the early Twentieth Century. She was among the first generation of working women. Shortly after the birth of her first son in 1967, she began working for Hartford Hospital, where she was a health insurance benefits specialist in the human resources department. She retired from the hospital in 1998.
Long before the term was coined, she was a soccer mom, enthusiastically cheering for her two sons from the sidelines while her husband coached their teams. Virginia enjoyed spending time on the high seas and took more than two dozen cruises to the Caribbean, Mexico and Bermuda with friends and family. She celebrated her 40th birthday in Italy and her son's wedding in Cancun, Mexico. She was also an avid reader of history and current events. She was a longtime and active member of Christ the King Parish (Corpus Christi Church) in Wethersfield.
She is survived by her husband, Bruno; two sons, Bruno of Westfield, N.J., and Marco of Chappaqua, N.Y.; daughters-in-law Emily Root of Westfield and Christy Tedeschi of Chappaqua; four grandchildren, Zoe, Dylan, Tara and Isabella; nephews, Tony Margiotta and Bruno Santilli and niece Laura Margiotta; great-nieces, Concetta, Dora and Martha Santilli and great-nephew, Sal Santilli, as well as dozens of nieces and nephews in Italy. She was predeceased by her brother-in-law, Guido Margiotta; her sister-in-law, Linda Margiotta and her niece, Assunta Santilli.
Visitation will be from 10-11 a.m. on Monday, February 26 at the D'Esopo Funeral Chapel, 277 Folly Brook Blvd., Wethersfield, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:30 a.m. at Corpus Christi Church of Christ the King Parish, 601 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield. Entombment will immediately follow at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford. To share a memory of Virginia, please visit www.desopofuneralchapel.com.