Virginia May Levanas

1925 - 2011

A special memorial Mass for Virginia will be held at St. Lawrence Martyr Church, 1900 S. Prospect Ave, Redondo Beach, 90277, on Saturday, July 23 at 11:00am with reception to follow. Virginia May Levanas, beloved mother, grandmother, and great grandmother died May 13, 2011 at the age of 86. Her Funeral Mass was on May 23 at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westwood with burial at Holy Cross Cemetery. Virginia May MacKenzie was born and raised in the South Bay. As a young woman she learned to fly a plane and became a member of the Civil Air Patrol. In 1947 she became a Registered Nurse after graduating from St. Vincent's School of Nursing in Los Angeles. Tall and attractive, she had a zest for life and loved people. Soon she met and married Leo Daniel Levanas and they had four children. They were married for 51 years until Leo passed away in 1998. Friends and family frequently filled the Levanas home and garden for parties, celebrations, weddings and holidays. Virginia is survived by her four children: daughters, Linda (Michael) Ryan, Susan (Barry) Stone, and Geraldine (Yves) Uzan and son, Mike (Suzanne) Levanas. An adoring mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, her optimism, sense of humor, generosity and spontaneous enthusiasm were contagious. Virginia earned her masters degree at the University of Southern California. She was an educator, working at Torrance High School as the school nurse for 30 years. Many students remember the Medical Careers Club and Nurse's Aide classes that she taught. She was a very active parishioner at St. Lawrence Martyr parish both as a Lector and a Eucharistic Minister. In addition, she enjoyed being a Pastoral Care Counselor at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance. She was three time president of the Riviera Garden Club and enjoyed gardening her whole life. Her love of learning lasted a lifetime. She was one of the founding members of the Omnilore and a member of the Torrance Library Commission. She was a longtime member of two book clubs and also the AAUW local chapter. In lieu of flowers please make donations to: Torrance Public Library, Attention: Hillary Theyer, 3301 Torrance Blvd., Torrance, California 90503. Please sign the guest book at www.dailybreeze.com/obits.