LAKEPORT, Calif. – Virginia passed away on March 17, 2016, the day after her 87th birthday, in the compassionate care of Sutter Lakeside Hospital staff and surrounded by her loving family. 

She suffered a fall in her home where she had lived very privately over the past several years following a series of health setbacks and illnesses.

Known as Ginny to friends and family, she was very vivacious and adventurous, and quite wild at times.

She was born in Oakland, Calif., to parents Marian Ehmann and Gerald Brook Trayner, and grew up in Piedmont.

As a girl, she enjoyed playing in golf tournaments at Claremont Country Club and horseback riding with her father in the Oakland hills.

Virginia was an heiress to the Ehmann Olive Co., which was founded by her great-grandmother, Freda Ehmann in Oroville, Calif.

She attended and graduated from Anna Head School for Girls in Berkeley and then went on to Cal Berkeley where she was in Gamma Phi Beta sorority.

She married her college sweetheart, John M. Grubb, and settled in Piedmont. Children Catherine Rose, John Grubb and Marianne Grubb were born there.

They shared a great many vacations with their mom to beautiful places including Pebble Beach, Lake Tahoe and Oahu.

She loved fast cars, and at one time she had a two seater Lotus Elite while pregnant along with her three young kids in tote.

Virginia remarried, moved out to Lafayette and had a son, Tony Wiest. It was a short marriage, and in 1968, she married again, this time to a childhood friend, John Wiest, becoming stepmother to his two children Jessica and Jack Wiest.

After John’s death, and then her mother’s, she moved to Lakeport in 1992 to be closer to family and grandsons.

Virginia always kept a lovely garden and was very talented in needlework and interior decorating. She loved watching her sons and grandsons play sports, and her swimming pool was always a popular place. 

Everyone who knew her can still picture her by a pool, with a cup of coffee, listening to a Giants game, and surrounded by a sun-bronzed gaggle of kids with chlorine-bleached hair.

Virginia leaves behind her children; grandsons, Franklin Ley, John Grubb, Casey Grubb, Colton Grubb, Trevor Wiest, Brett Wiest and Danny Stueven; and granddaughter, Jerrica Stueven. She also has five wonderful great-grandsons, Logan, Johnny, Jeremiah, Brookes and Morgan. Virginia is survived by her sister, Barbara Maxfield, of Calistoga.

As requested, there will be no service but family will have a celebration of life gathering this summer which will be announced at a later date.

In lieu of donations, please share your love freely with and be grateful for your family and parents while you have them. Never let anger or grudges get in the way of love.

Arrangements by Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary, 707-263-0357 or 707-994-5611 or visit www.chapelofthelakes.com .