SoJ Web Report | Sept. 30, 2008
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| Photo by Ann Schertz |
| Virginia Savage at the 2007 scholarship awards ceremony. |
| Services: Friday, 4-8 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Funeral: Saturday 1 p.m. Day Funeral Home, Bloomington |
| Contribute to the Chris Savage Memorial Scholarship Fund through IU Foundation. |
| Read a tribute by School of Journalism Dean Brad Hamm. |
A journalist and educator, she was born Oct. 31, 1919, in Salem, Ind., to Walter Garfield Mead and Elsie May (Chenoweth) Mead. She was bitten by the journalism bug early: As a grade school student, she wrote an article about building a bird nest that was published in the Indianapolis Star.
After graduating high school at 16, she came to Indiana University to major in journalism, receiving a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1940. Here, she met her future husband, Stephen G. (Chris) Savage, who at that time was writing for the Indiana Daily Student. Married in 1941, the couple moved to Evansville and then to Fort Wayne, where both worked at local newspapers.
They carried their habit of working together through World War II when Chris entered the Army in 1943 and Virginia joined the WAVES of the U.S. Navy. She attended Midshipmen School at Smith College in Massachusetts and then was then stationed in New Orleans and Miami, working as an ensign and an overseas cable censor.
Once discharged, the couple moved to Louisville, where Chris worked for the Courier-Journal and Virginia concentrated on their new daughter. In 1946, the couple returned to Bloomington, where Chris was headmaster of dormitories and, later, instructor at the School of Journalism.
As the family expanded to four children, Virginia was busy as a homemaker, but returned to college in the late 1950s to pursue a master’s degree in education. She once again joined Chris in his profession and spent 27 years as an elementary teacher in the Monroe County schools. Chris died in 1964, leaving Virginia to raise and educate their four children, then ages 12 to 20.
Once her children were grown and she had retired from the public schools, Virginia returned to her first love, journalism, and took a job as reporter for IU’s news bureau. She joined several journalism groups, including Bloomington Press Club, Theta Sigma Phi and the Ernie Pyle Society, a group of retired area newspeople who gather for lunch once a month. Members jokingly called Virginia “Ernie’s Call Girl” as she took on the duty of calling all members to alert them to the next meeting date and location.
She also was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, the University Club, the IU Alumni Association, Retired Teachers Association, the Monroe County Historical Society, the Indiana Historical Society, the National Audubon Society, the Mental Health Association, Tri Kappa and Trinity Episcopal Church.
Her ties to the School of Journalism continue today with the Chris Savage Memorial Scholarship set up in memory of her late husband. Each year, Virginia Savage has attended the spring scholarship ceremony in order to meet the student recipient of the award and share some of her memories of her husband and the profession they both found so rewarding.
She is survived her four children, a sister, two sisters-in-law, three grandchildren, three great-granddaughters and numerous nieces, nephews, friends and acquaintances.
Friends may call at the Day Funeral Home in Bloomington 4-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4. Funeral services will be 1 p.m. Saturday. Burial will be at Valhalla Memory Gardens. Online condolences may be sent to the family at Mem.com.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to the Chris Savage Memorial Scholarship at the IU School of Journalism. Contributions may be made through the IU Foundation.
School will miss Savage’s spirit, dedication
by School of Journalism Dean Brad Hamm
Virginia Savage was a wonderful member of the IU journalism family for nearly eight decades, and we will miss her energy, spirit and dedication. She arrived on the Bloomington campus as a teenager in the 1930s and regularly attended events in the building until 2008.I told her often about meeting alumni around the country over the past three years who would recall visiting her home. Other alumni contacted her directly. Her husband, Chris, taught journalism until his death in 1964. Chris and Virginia were hosts to many students and were respected and beloved by hundreds of IU graduates.
Over the past few years, Virginia came to Ernie Pyle Hall regularly for alumni events or other occasions. I often would see her visit the collection of photographs, now in our Weil Library, of faculty emeriti. Sometimes she brought family or friends to see the black-and-white photograph of Chris.
In March, she sat with the most recent Savage family scholarship winner, Stefanie Smith, at our Journalism Scholarship Day. All of us in the School of Journalism family — from the students in the 1930s and 1940s to the students, faculty and staff today — extend our condolences to the family and many, many friends of Virginia M. Savage. She brightened the lives of many, and fortunately, we were able to tell her so.
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