Virginia O'Hanlon

Later life

Virginia O'Hanlon’s life was forever shaped by the famous editorial her letter inspired. She often said it set her on a positive path. For the rest of her years, especially around Christmas, she received letters from the public and always included a copy of the editorial in her replies.

She would sometimes read it aloud at holiday events, and in 1933 she gave a lecture on the subject at Hunter College. Reporters would call her each December for a comment, and she would tell them the editorial’s truths remained as strong as ever. She noted that she was only famous from November to January; the rest of the year she went unnoticed.

Career

O’Hanlon earned a Bachelor of Arts from the Normal College of the City of New York in 1910, followed by a master’s degree in education from Columbia University in 1911. She began teaching elementary school in New York City public schools in 1912. By 1920 she was still living with her parents. In 1930 she completed a doctorate in education at Fordham University, writing her dissertation on “The Importance of Play.” She continued in the city’s school system, becoming a junior principal in 1935 at schools including PS Manhattan 31 and P.S. 401, and retired in 1959.

Personal life, death and legacy

For most of her life, O’Hanlon lived at 115 West 95th Street, the same address where she grew up. She married Edward Douglas in the mid-1910s, and their daughter, Laura Virginia, was born in 1915. Edward either died or left the family shortly before the child’s birth.

O’Hanlon kept his surname, calling herself Laura Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas. After retiring, she moved to North Chatham, New York, a small village near Albany. She died on May 13, 1971, at age 81, in a nursing home in Valatie, New York, and was buried at Chatham Rural Cemetery in North Chatham.

A handwritten copy of her original letter, which her family believed was the one returned by the newspaper, was authenticated in 1998 by appraiser Kathleen Guzman on the television program Antiques Roadshow. In 2007, the show valued it at roughly $50,000. As of 2015, the letter was in the possession of Virginia’s great-granddaughter.