Virginia Williams was born on a farm in Delight, Arkansas. As a teenager during World War II, she remembers writing V-mail letters to her two brothers in the Pacific--one a sailor, the other a soldier. Because most of the boys were fighting in the war, she attended high school mainly with girls. FBI officials came to her school, recruiting women for administrative jobs with the bureau in Washington. In June of 1945 Virginia and a girlfriend headed for the capital where she worked in personnel records in the FBI building at Ninth and Pennsylvania. She witnessed homecoming parades for Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, for Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, and for Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. Virginia worked for a year (including part-time employment at Sears and as a babysitter) and saved $500 for college. Returning to Arkansas she attended Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, studying home economics and journalism. She came to Shreveport with her now-late husband and helped him establish a law practice.