Virginia Ruth Waddell

Virginia Ruth Waddell, a long-time resident of Salt Lake City, died, November 14, 2025, after complications due to a lingering illness. She was 83. A native of Lawson in Ray County, Missouri, Virginia was born on the family farmstead to Rowena Elizabeth Wheeler and Daniel Glenn Taggart on October 24, 1942.

Her mother named her Virginia, after her maternal great-aunt. Her middle name, Ruth, was after her mother’s closest friend, Ruth McCune.

Growing up on the farm, Virginia spent her youth learning how to feed the chickens and care for all the other farm animals. She loved her deep roots and connection to that rural upbringing. She and her younger brother, Dave, spent their childhood playing and enjoying all the adventures the farm offered. Her father was the manager of Drumm Farm, a working farm for young boys who needed more structure and direction in their lives. His efforts helped teach and mentor many wayward boys and put them on the right path in life.

Her mother was a lifelong school teacher, and she taught Virginia from an early age the importance of education and attention to detail. Anyone who knew Virginia knew about her passion and love for teaching. Her handwriting was a perfect cursive, and her communication skills were exceptional. She attributed this, in part, to her mother’s insistence she practice a particular Mother Goose nursery rhyme:

1. Betty Boughter bought a bit of bitter butter.
2. Said Better Boughter to her Mother.
3. “If I put this bit of bitter butter in my batter, it will make my batter bitter.”
4. So Betty Boughter bought a bit of better butter and made her batter better.
5. 
   

Virginia attended Central Missouri State College in Warrensburg, Missouri, from 1960-64, where she earned a degree in education and speech therapy. Virginia later taught inner speech therapy at an urban school in St. Louis, Missouri and was a master teacher/student of proper pronunciation and diction.

It was in college where she met Stephen F. Seninger. They were married in the First Methodist Church in Independence, Missouri. The family eventually settled in Salt Lake City, where she and Steve raised their two children. Virginia was a dedicated wife and mother, whose efforts focused on giving her children every opportunity to succeed. She was an active member of the PTA and the Utah Girl Scout Council. Those she worked with on the PTA loved her holiday treats, especially her homemade chocolate rum balls.

That is until they realized they were actually filled with real rum.

Claiming to be an inch over 5 feet, whatever she lacked in height she made up in spirit and fight. Always the advocate for the underdog and the underserved, one day she found out that the physical-education evaluation standards for the fifth-grade boys and girls attending Uintah Elementary were not the same. The next day, she marched into the school and proceeded to lecture administrators that girls were just as capable, if not more, than the boys. As a result of her efforts, the girls had to complete three pull-ups on the playground bars—the same as the boys.

Everyone who knew Virginia knew where they stood with her. She had a very direct way of communicating and telling them what she thought and why. This served her well throughout her life. You never had to guess what Virginia was thinking.

Virginia loved Girl Scouting. She participated as a young girl, and that passion to teach and help young girls be independent eventually led Virginia to a full-time position with the Salt Lake Girl Scout Council. After many years in that role and overseeing the selling of thousands of boxes of Girl Scout Cookies, the Council promoted her to the position of executive director of the North Atlantic Girl Scouts, giving her responsibility for Girl Scout operations for all of Europe.

With that assignment she moved to Heidelberg, Germany. Now as a single mother with two grown children living in the U.S., she could focus on the next chapter of her life. As she tells it, she never intended to remarry. She was enjoying traveling in Europe, working with Girl Scout leaders and focusing on her new career.

But as fate would have it, she met Larry L. Waddell in 1990 while on a tour of the Kurfursten Museum in Heidelberg. Her landlords, Sigrid and Otto Knopf, had invited Larry to meet Virginia at the event. Her first impression of Larry was he dressed in a sharp business suit, and he was tall, at 6-foot-7, a full foot-and-a-half taller than Virginia. “A handsome man,” she recalled.

What a pair they made. They later had their first date on a Volksmarch in the rolling hills of Heidelberg and later, on April 27, 1991, they married at The Chapel of the Heidelberg Castle and shared many common interests. As she would say, “Marriage to Larry put supreme joy into my life.”

Larry also grew up on a farm, in Illinois, and was one of 13 children. When they met, Larry was working for the U.S. Army as a civilian employee. They shared a love of the rural Midwest and retired to the Waddell family farm after their time in Europe ended. Larry died in 2003 and upon her husband’s passing, Virginia moved back to Salt Lake City, where she continued to oversee the Waddell corn and soybean farm for many years, organizing, among other things, the annual hog roast to thank all the those who contributed to the farm’s day-to-day operation.

In her free time Virginia loved reading. One of her favorite books was Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer by Richard Rhodes. She was a dedicated fan of NPR’s “Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me!” and never missed a show. Attending an in-person performance in Salt Lake City this past year was a highlight. She also was a dedicated fan of “Prairie Home Companion.”

She was an avid genealogist and often did work for non-family members and researched thousands on her family lines. She loved reading people’s histories and discovering details about them. Many in her family lines came from rural communities, something she felt tied them closer to her because of their shared background. She also loved to sew, garden, cook and entertain, skills she inherited from watching her mother while growing up.

She especially loved having her family visit her home for the annual Christmas Oyster Supper. After the meal, she would treat guests to a pile of perfectly wrapped gifts, all coming from Virginia’s vast collection of trinkets she had purchased while living in Europe. She loved “regifting” these items, and they were extremely meaningful to the recipients because they knew what the items meant to Virginia. Virginia also carried on the tradition her mother started by giving her children a special Christmas ornament with their names on them.

Preceding her in death are her parents, husband, Larry, and brother, Dave Taggart. She is survived by her two children Glenn (Kathy) of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Beth (Mike) of Sandy, Utah. She is blessed with six grandchildren: Clark (Stacy), Sierra (Spencer), Nick (Robyn), Savannah (Brady), Hank (Kristen) and Gabe, as well as seven great-grandsons: Cannon, Sonny, Teddy Bo, Crew, Rey and Zeke, and one great-granddaughter, Chloe.

The family would like to thank all the doctors and nurses of Intermountain Health for the love and care they showed Virginia in her final days.

Virginia is reunited with her loved ones and her beloved Larry. She is now with our Father in Heaven.

We love you, Virginia.

In lieu of flowers please consider donating to Drumm Farm Center for Children at this link: Give.classy.org/Drumm