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Virginia Coventry Mount Ayres

Date of Death: December 26, 2024

Date of Birth: September 8, 1938

Biography:

Virginia Coventry Mount Ayres
(September 8, 1938 – December 26, 2024)

Virginia Coventry Mount Ayres, of Phippsburg, Maine, passed away on December 26, 2024, due to complications from COVID-19.

Virginia was born in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1938, to Mary Helen Coventry Ayres and William Hanes Ayres. Virginia was the eldest of three children including her brother Frank Hanes Ayres who died in 1991 and her sister Judith Ayres Burke who lives in Middleburg, Virginia. Her father served as a U.S. Congressman representing Ohio's 14th District from 1951 to 1971, a source of great pride to her. 

Virginia was raised in Akron, Ohio, and graduated from The Old Trail School in 1956. She earned a degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina in 1960. She considered a career in nursing when working at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for Dr. George Thorn and Dr. David Cogan whom she held in high regard throughout her life and who set the bar by which she compared all other medical care. 

In 1965, Virginia married Dr. James Mount and lived in Ottawa, Canada where they had a daughter, Tamara Elizabeth Mount. Later, she and Tamara returned to live in the Washington, DC area with Virginia's parents while she obtained her Montessori early childhood teaching credential. Thus began her career in Montessori education, as both a teacher and an administrator, including leading Montessori schools in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania; Corte Madera, California; and Camden, Maine. She also obtained a Master's Degree in Special Education from George Washington University. She developed wonderful relationships with her colleagues and was an early champion of children with learning differences. 

She lived for decades in Alexandria, Virginia, including six years married to Lloyd Ryman Purves, before relocating full-time to Phippsburg, Maine where she had a wonderful community of friends and visitors. She loved outdoor activities, including: birding, sailing (with an expertise in "being the ballast"), kayaking, golfing (with a strength in providing encouraging commentary), and pickleball. She is remembered fondly as a generous hostess who loved to share her home, serving lobsters, popovers, and pie from the Phippsburg "pie lady". 

Virginia was deeply devoted to her friends and family, especially her daughter and her grandsons, Darwin Maxwell Mount Holcombe and Huxley Mays Mount Holcombe. In her final years, she spent as much time as possible at her house on "The Basin" supported by a loving community of friends and family. She spent her last couple of winters at SunnyBrook Assisted Living where caring staff supported her increasing dementia. 

Virginia wanted "to have a few ashes scattered into The Basin down by the point." We will oblige - sometime over the summer we will put on bright red lipstick and walk down to the point to spread her ashes. 

Virginia was a longtime advocate and volunteer for Ski For Light (SFL) and in her later years loved pickleball. If you would like to honor her memory with a donation, please consider SFL (Checks can be mailed to Ski for Light, Inc. 1455 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408-2648. Alternatively, donations can be made online at https://www.sfl.org/donate/) or the Bath YMCA (https://ops1.operations.daxko.com/online/2122/OnlineGiving/Donation.mvc)