New Jersey author Virginia Lee Randall Masterman-Smith passed away suddenly and peacefully in her sleep on October 27. She was 85 years old. Stroke was the suspected cause. She was generally happy and healthy in her later years.

Virginia was born on November 18, 1937 in New York City, NY and grew up in the Jersey shore city of Long Branch, NJ. She was a graduate of Star of the Sea Academy, Red Bank Catholic High School, where she was on the Yearbook staff and a varsity cheerleader. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Literature from Georgian Court College (now University) and later received a Masters in Special Education from Monmouth College (now University) in 1989.

In 1965 she briefly served as a typist at the venerable U.S. Army Signal Corps headquarters at Fort Monmouth, NJ. While she honed skills which would support success in the competitive book market, in 1966, she resigned to focus on a teaching carreer. While at the fort she met the love of her life at the fort’s bowling league, U.S. Army satellite pioneer Kenneth Masterman-Smith. Kenneth fell in love on their first date. She was not so sure. They two persisted and were married in 1967. They had two boys, Stephen in 1968 and Michael in 1971. They lived in Eatontown, NJ then moved to West Long Branch, NJ, where they lived until 1985.

In 1976 she attracted the attention of the distinguished literary agency of New York City-based McIntosh & Otis, who represented her through The Treasure Trap/The Haunted Mansion Mystery (1979), The Great Egyptian Heist (1982) and First Mate Tate (2000). The Haunted Mansion Mystery became a 2 part seasoner opener for the popular ABC Weekend Specials series. At the age of 80 she submitted her 4th novel for publication, the Civil War era historical fiction, Elysia’s War, with additional manuscripts in revision.

Virginia loved working with young minds and was a passionate educator and innovator in the classroom. She developed a new type of reading program for learning disabled and emotionally disturbed children who could not read. In a six decade teaching career, she taught 4th-12th grade English, Literature and Special Education in Jersey shore districts including West Long Branch, Long Branch and Jefferson County in northwest New Jersey. She was honored as one on New Jersey’s teachers as a Governor’s Fellow of the AT&T Teacher’s & Technology Institute in 1993 under NJ Gov. Jim Florio. She is a past President of the West Long Branch PTA; led creative writing workshops at schools throughout the state; and was a tutor for in-patient pediatric patients in Long Branch’s Monmouth Medical Center and pediatric cancer patients in Toms River.

Virginia was diplomatic but demanding in her advocacy for things she cared about. She worked with the Humane Society to pursue federal legislation to limit trapping in residential areas. She was invited to Capitol Hill to give jarring testimony to a Congressional subcommittee investigation on an experience she had when the family dog, Banjo, broke loose from a leash and ran off into the local woods when she was pregnant with her second son. Banjo disappeared for 4 days and lost a leg from being caught in a steel trap. She found a sparring partner in the late U.S. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and held her ground. 

Virginia’s novels and manuscripts centered around female protagonists. Her biggest success, The Treasure Trap (Four Winds Press/Scholastic) was retitled The Haunted Mansion Mystery in soft cover and entertained audiences in the U.S., Great Britain and was translated into German and Chinese. A young Christian Slater played the character Billy Beak in one of his earliest acting roles in The Haunted Mansion Mystery, which aired as part of the ABC Weekend Specials and ABC After School Mystery Theater. After turning down a nominal take-it-or-leave-it offer by ABC for her characters, she wrote the sequel, The Great Egyptian Heist. 

In the 1990s, her writing shifted to more complex, provocative and mature themes. The Tycoon, her 1st submission to McIntosh & Otis in 1976, was rejected and rewritten multiple times before Marshall Cavendish joined the project to publish First Mate Tate in 2000 (Marshall Cavendish). The dark satire, drawing on personal experiences in her youth with father a compulsive gambler, centers around a young female protagonist preventing the loss of family’s house and marina business due to parents’ gambling problems. 

As a reporter for the Red Bank Register, Virginia found a creative partner in Bayshore, NJ area pianist Barbara DeAngelis. The two teamed to write and co-produce the historical musical drama “Our Life”, which chronicled an American family through the 20th century. In 1982 “Our Life” premiered at Monmouth University’s Guggenheim Theater and was invited to showcase the play in the theater district of New York City in pursuit of a Broadway release.

In 1985, she became Director of Public Relations for the West End Cultural Center on Brighton Ave in Long Branch and founded the start-up company Photo Trax with Kenneth. Photo Trax was one of the first companies to successfully convert home movies to videotape w/o flicker or image degradation at the dawn of the VCR era. 

Virginia and Kenneth divorced in 1985 but remained close until his passing in 1997. She remarried Thomas Quirk in 1993 and divorced in 1999. She found love years later in Lyman Daly. Towards the end of her life, Virginia found her true love was Kenneth. She requested to be interred with him so she could be with him again and forever.

Virginia was on a lifelong spiritual journey, She was raised Catholic and was pursuing the nunnery. However she left the convent to pursue a non-denominational spiritual path and ultimately found Nichiren Buddhism in the 1990s. From then on, she chanted daily at her Butsudan shrine for enlightenment and world peace until her final months.

Among her hobbies and interests were summers at the beach on the Jersey shore including  Takanassee Beach Club; NY Giants football; NY Yankees baseball; needlepoint; running; swimming; and softball. Upon her retirement from teaching, in 2013 she moved to Vidalia, Georgia to be closer with her family and her grandchildren, Cody and Cole and attended their games, plays, events, holidays and birthdays. In Georgia, she continued her writing and became a fierce Words With Friends player.

She is predeceased by sister Doris Eaton and nephew Brian Eaton. Survivors include brother Jack LoPinto of Toronto, Canada; sisters Kathy Vignolini of Long Branch, New Jersey and Michele Schmuch of La Habra, California; son Dr. Michael Masterman-Smith of Marina del Rey, California, Consulting Portfolio Executive for the United States National Institutes of Health; and son Stephen and daughter-in-law Dr. Caryn Janzer Masterman-Smith of Memorial Meadows Health Physicians – Children’s Care; and grandsons Cody and Cole Masterman-Smith of Vidalia, Georgia. 

The family requests, in lieu of flowers, a donation in her memory be made to charities she supported: Covenant House; Humane Society; SGI-USA (Nichiren Buddhism); St. Joseph’s Indian School; St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital; Shriners Hospitals; USMC Toys for Tots; and Wounded Warriors.

A private Interment for family and close friends is scheduled for November 10, 2023 at 2p at Woodbridge Memorial Gardens in Woodbridge, NJ. A Celebration of Life for family and friends is scheduled for November 11, 2023 1p-4p at The Branches at 123 Monmouth Road, West Long Branch, NJ 07764.