Virginia Crafts

Virginia Crafts, 97, of Shelburne Falls, MA passed on from this life peacefully on May 27th.  She was born in Greenfield, MA, the first daughter to Phillip A. and Anna (Stafursky) Crafts.  She grew up on the family dairy farm in Conway, MA, and at the age of 18, she embarked on a whirlwind life journey that had her at 56 different addresses over the next four decades.

Early on, she waitressed at some grand hotels in NH and Florida.  Soon, she landed in Boston, where she developed a love of fine jewelry.  She worked many years at Zinn Jewelers and Church Company and, in her later years, at Cleary Jewelers in Greenfield, MA.  The highlight of her career came when she was invited to travel to Belgium to purchase diamonds for the store.  

At one point, she became interested in scrimshaw and left her jewelry career in Boston behind and moved to Nantucket to study the art.  While there, she worked several years as assistant harbormaster at the Nantucket Boat Basin and produced several fine pieces of original scrimshaw.  

After a few winters in the US Virgin Islands and another stint in Boston, she returned to the family farm in the 1980s to help her aging parents.  During those years, she lost her two sisters, Jean Cislo and Nina Murray, and both parents.  She remained at the farmhouse until the age of 89, when she moved to Pondview Assisted Living in Barrington, NH to be nearer to family.  

Jinny was an artist through and through.  She blessed us with many beautiful paintings, wood cuts, drawings, scrimshaw and handmade Christmas cards.  Her favorite subjects were ocean scenes from Nantucket and Maine, moonscapes and interesting trees.  Jinny also had a special way with words, authoring over a hundred wonderful poems and entertaining everyone she met with her storytelling, drawing upon her most interesting life experiences.  She was a gregarious soul and made friendships all over the world that lasted a lifetime.  Besides art and poetry, she enjoyed sailing, travel, taking in a meal with friends or family and collecting fine crafts and antiques.

She is survived by her nine nieces and nephews and a few cousins.  No services are planned at this time.

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