Following is the obituary for VIRGINIA PILS, submitted for the family by the Harding Funeral Home.

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Virginia Carr was born on Aug. 21, 1926, in Los Angeles, Calif., to Phillip Carr of Maine and Gladys Miskimum Olcott Carr of Red Lodge, Mont. She died Nov. 3, 2022.

Her father graduated from Cornell and designed golf courses. While playing golf with Gary Cooper in Montana he met Gladys, who sang opera as a graduate of the Montana Conservatory of Music. They moved to California and Virginia graduated from Long Beach Poly Tech High School in 1944 and UCLA in 1948. 

She taught high school English in Durand, Mich., before starting at Yale School of Drama in New Haven, where she earned her M.F.A. in drama. 

She moved to New York City where she almost worked for Alfred Hitchcock, but always made parties at the Yale Club or Larry Olivier’s apartment. She went on many auditions while she worked steadily in personnel at General Electric. This is where she met George Dewey Pils, after his Marine Corps service, and married him in November 1958. They were married nearly 53 years when he passed in August 2011. 

Since Virginia was an only child it was important to her to have a family. She had four children, Dwain, Diana, Gregg and Gary. 

Being a corporate wife, they moved to three states and six towns before settling in Westport in 1974. She was a Brownie leader, an assistant Girl Scout leader, on various PTAs, League of Women Voters, a member of the Ecumenical Society in Westport and American Association of University Women president. Every year, she’d get various authors together for the annual book author luncheon to help new writers. 

She was an avid member of her church, First Church of Christ Scientist on Compo Road in Westport. She sold advertising for The Christian Science Monitor, so Westport store owners knew the six-foot-tall (she loved designer shoes), red-headed woman who sold ads for them.

Once her children were older she went back to teaching drama at the Seabury Center in Westport. She also taught English at Fairfield Prep and the Daycroft School.

She loved visiting her alma mater and going to shows at the Yale Repertory Theater as well as Broadway trips. She enjoyed traveling with her husband to Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Greece, Alaska and Asia. 

She was a very loving Mom and her children’s friends were always welcome to come over. She is remembered as dressed nicely, with an apron on cooking for her family. She was a member of the Gourmet Club in Westport for people to cook and get to know each other. She made lifelong friends from that club in the 1970s.

She is survived by her four children, Dwain (Beth) Pils of Cornelius, N.C., Diana Pils Marino (Kevin) of Stamford, Gary (Bonnie) Pils of Norwalk and Gregg Pils of Fairfield; four grandchildren, Jessica Pils Fields (Jonathan) of Cornelius, N.C., Mat Pils of Stanley, N.C., and Tyler and Ava Pils of Norwalk.

The family will receive friends in the Harding Funeral Home, 210 Post Road East, on Saturday, Nov. 19, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A service will follow immediately in the funeral home. Condolences for the family can be left on line at www.hardingfuneral.com.