Virginia Mae (Allin) Coigney (1917 - 1997)

Born 2 Oct 1917 in Piggott, Arkansas, United States

Descendants

Died 18 Dec 1997 at age 80 in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Ann Gordon [send private message]

Biography

Virginia (Allin) Coigney is Notable.

• Father: John Allin; mother: Maryjoe Copeland
• Social activist including civil rights Selma & elsewhere; arrested for anti-apartheid
• Author, journalist, union organizer and TV scriptwriter
• Divorced at the time of death
• Last residence: Redding, Fairfield, CT

Virginia A. Coigney (October 2, 1917 – December 18, 1997) was a civic leader, journalist and author.[1] She married journalist and author Robert Travers in the mid-1930s, by whom she became the mother of folk singer Mary Travers of Peter, Paul & Mary fame. She later became the mother of Ann (Cooper) Gordon of Oakland, California.

Coigney was born in Piggott, Arkansas, and raised near Albany, New York, where she quit school to become a reporter for the Albany Knickerbocker Press.[2]

In later life Coigney was an author and radio/television scriptwriter. She wrote scripts for the soap operas Young Doctor Malone and The Edge of Night.[2] She wrote a biography of Dr. Margaret Sanger, the birth-control advocate.

Coigney died in a Greenwich, Connecticut nursing home. She was survived by daughters, Mary Travers and Ann Gordon, as well as four grandchildren and two great-granddaughters.[2]

One of the books written by Virginia Coigney in a "Do You Know" series of books is titled Who Did It? It was edited by Eve Merriam and illustrated by Murray Tinkelman. The first edition was printed in 1963 in the U.S. and published simultaneously by Collier-Macmillan Limited, London. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-12789. Other books in the series include Where is it?, Who said it? and What's in the middle of a riddle?.

Sources

• Wikipedia
• Obituary: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

• "Versatile Virginia Coigney dies at 80," obituary, News-Times, The (Danbury, Connecticut, USA), 20 December 1997, accessed June 21, 2020, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/obit/11060C41E0E16778-11060C41E0E16778?p=OBIT. [Obituary which includes information about her work to improve the Danbury Hospital.]

From behind the ancestry.com subscription wall:

• US Census, 1940
• U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
• Connecticut Death Index, 1949-2012
• U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/160341771/virginia-mae-travers_coigney: accessed 15 July 2023), memorial page for Virginia Mae Allin Travers Coigney (2 Oct 1917–18 Dec 1997), Find A Grave: Memorial #160341771, citing Umpawaug Cemetery, Redding, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA; Maintained by magoo (contributor 47628119).

(Cooper-14488) Cooper, Ann. Personal recollection, 29 May 2020.

[1]"Virginia Coigney". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. December 21, 1997.

[2]"Civic leader Coigney dies". Associated Press. December 21, 1997. Retrieved 2009-09-17.

Father: John Allin, DOB unknown Mother: Maryjoe Copeland