Obituary of Virginia Raship

Virginia Anne Raship (née Gorman) died Thursday morning, April 21 2016 in her home in Great Neck, NY. She was 85 years old. Virginia (or Ginny as she was known to family and friends) was born May 5, 1930 in New Rochelle, NY, the first child of Teresa and Edward J. Gorman. She grew up in Manhattan, the eldest of five siblings on the Upper West Side. She graduated from the Holy Child Jesus Academy and from the College of New Rochelle. After graduating, she traveled in Europe and joined the US Marine Corps, where she achieved the rank of First Lieutenant, being among the first women to join the Corps. After receiving an Honorable Discharge, she received her Masters Degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. She married her husband Manush Raship in 1959, who was at that time a graduate student at NYU. She and Manush spent 57 happy years together. Living in Great Neck, she was a dedicated member of countless book clubs, women's groups and charitable organizations. An avid fan of the movies, she saw everything from Oscar winning hits to the tiniest of obscure indies. She was also a lifelong theater goer, a focused and discerning book reader, and a visitor of museums, keeping notes on nearly everything she watched or saw. She will be remembered by family and friends for her generosity, good spirits, open-mindedness, and sociability. She is now in the company of her parents, her sisters Jean and Joan, and her brother Donald. She is survived by her brother Robert, her husband Manush and her children Michael and Carolyn.