ZANA BEGIEN

BEGIEN, Zana "Jill" Davenport, passed to eternal life in Charlottesville on January 13, 2011 after a battle with cancer. She was the daughter of Dorothy Swain Begien of Stanford, California, and Ralph Norman Begien Jr. of Richmond. Her grandfathers were Robert Eckles Swain, Stanford 1899, former Acting President of the University and Professor of Chemistry, and Ralph Norman Begien Sr., a Vice-President of the C & O Railroad. She was born in Richmond, Virginia, on January 30, 1934 and graduated from St. Catherine's School in 1951 before attending Stanford University and graduating in 1955. She worked briefly in San Francisco before joining the CIA in Washington, D.C. She was an analyst, specializing in the Middle East. Besides Headquarters assignments, she held overseas posts in Paris, Cairo, Athens, Bombay and Tehran. After retirement from government service in 1986, she lived in Washington, D.C., Charlottesville and Virginia Beach. In retirement, she was a volunteer with Books for the Blind in Charlottesville. She was preceded in death by her parents; and her siblings, Jacquelin Begien Dawson and Ralph Norman Begien III. She is survived by her nieces and nephews, Jennifer Dawson-Lawrence, Paul Dawson Jr., Kristin Wilson and Christopher Dawson; her cousin, Constance Campbell of Richmond; and her brother-in-law, Paul Dawson of McLean, Virginia. A private burial service will be held at Hollywood Cemetery on Saturday, January 22, 2011, followed by a public memorial service at 3 p.m. at St. James's Episcopal Church.


This obituary was originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.