Virginia M. Hamill

Virginia M. Hamill, a long-time news editor at The Washington Post, died on July 2, 2025, after a long illness. She was 81.

Virginia, known as Ginny to her family, friends, and colleagues, began her 40-year career with The Post in 1966 as a teletype operator and retired in 2006 as a deputy foreign editor.

When she started at The Post, Ginny was one of few women working in journalism. In 1971, as an unflappable young woman of just 27, Ginny was assigned by The Post to spend a year as its news editor in London. She also served as European editor for what was then the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service.

Thrust into what was then a very male bastion, she quickly rose to the challenge. In 1972, the UK's The Daily Mirror reported, "Virginia Hamill, London editor of The Washington Post, had lunch in London last week with 140 men. She was the only woman guest...." Ginny dryly commented to The Daily Mirror, "Yes, it was disconcerting, but I enjoyed it from a sociological point of view. It was all traditionally male, and very clubby and very English." Ginny's one-year London assignment turned into a nine-year stint.

She returned to The Post's Foreign Desk in Washington in 1979 as an assistant editor, just a month before the hostage crisis in Iran. After helping oversee the desk through what she called "a multitude of other international upheavals," she was promoted to deputy foreign editor in 1992.

Ginny had an innate ability to bring people together, whether in the newsroom, at industry events, journalist hangouts, or over dinner parties. She leaves behind a legacy of collaboration, mentorship, and a profound impact on the journalistic community.

Publisher, syndicated columnist, PBS broadcaster Llewellyn King, a friend and colleague from her London days, recently wrote: "Ginny brought wealth into my life ... through the introductions to her friends from that London period.... They constituted what I called 'The Set.' In London, New York, and Washington, we worked at the journalism trade.... We also partied; it went with the territory."

The Washington Post's July 2, 2025, news obituary quoted Post columnist David Ignatius, "She was a tough newsperson out of 'The Front Page'", referring to the satiric play and movie about scoop-hungry journalists.... "But she was a very spiritual and caring person under that exterior. She was the godmother (and sometimes confessor) for a generation of Washington Post correspondents."

Virginia Marie Hamill was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on January 20, 1944. Her father, Edward F. Hamill, was a New Jersey Superior Court judge and her mother, Virginia Egan Hamill, an elementary school teacher.

A 1965 graduate of Trinity College in Washington D.C. (now Trinity Washington University), Ginny received a bachelor's degree in political science and did graduate work in international relations at Georgetown University.

Outside the world of journalism, Ginny enjoyed her book clubs, social groups, dinner parties, theater, opera, ballet, and baroque music. She read voraciously and took great pride in her Irish roots and genealogy. She adored her nieces and nephews scattered throughout the U.S., Spain and England (Jill, James, Megan, Eamon, and Meave), her grandniece (Anouk) and grandnephews (Andrew, Brian, Leo, Oscar, and Ivo).

Ginny cherished her longtime relationships with her neighbors at her residence on Prince Street in Old Town, Alexandria, where she served on her condominium's board of directors for many years. She loved Old Town and Northern Virginia.

Ginny was a long-time parishioner of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Alexandria. She had a broad understanding of theological traditions and history and was generous in her support of the poor, the sick, and the aged.

Ginny is survived by her twin brother, Patrick J. Hamill (Elizabeth Cohen), and her sisters Eleanor Hamill (Joseph E. Parenteau) and Mary Hamill Bongiovanni (James F.), her sister-in-law Linda Germano (Edwin Holt), as well as her aforementioned nieces, nephews, grandniece, and grandnephews. She was predeceased by her younger brother James A. Hamill.

Ginny was laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery, North Arlington, New Jersey, with her parents and her brother James.

Memorial contributions may be made in Virginia Hamill's name to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Alexandria, Virginia, or to her alma mater, Trinity Washington University, Washington, D.C.

https://www.stpaulsalexandria.com/give/ https://discover.trinitydc.edu/development/give/

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The Washington Post News Obituary: "Virginia Hamill, a Washington Post editor, dies at 81" http://bit.ly/40OTQb4

A remembrance by publisher, broadcaster and syndicated columnist, Llewellyn King: "Notebook: Friends Who Share Friends Are the Nicest People" http://bit.ly/3IiuUCN