Scully, Virginia

Virginia McCormick Scully was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1898. She attended Central High School but her parents stopped her from attending college. She followed the church-guild junior league route and became a reporter on the Grand Rapids Press. One of her short stories gained the attention of John Farrar in New York. With his encouragement she migrated to Paris and then to New York where she served as a scriptwriter during the day and a publicity blurb writer by night. She became publicity director for the National Nurses’ Assocation.

Her life in New York City came to an end when her new husband Michael Scully became seriously ill. He had to be moved to East Texas where she and his family could take care of him. She and her husband researched and wrote a Motorists Guide to Mexico, while she wrote a number of pot boilers under assumed names. They spent the remaining 15 years of their life together overseas until Michael died in 1958.

The rest of Scully’s life was based in Southeastern Wyoming, at the RRR Ranch or in a Cheyenne apartment. She traveled throughout the Southwest and Mexico doing research with retired colonel William C. Rogers. They shared an interest in the story of Calamity Jane and the American frontier. They also had a strong interest in Mexico, its herbs, and its Indian culture. Virginia Scully researched the Chilean leader Bernardo O’Higgens, and she wrote a successful book on Indian herbs and medicines entitled A Treasury of Indian Herbs, which was published in 1970. She established the Virginia McCormick Scully Best Book award late in life. In 1973 her health deteriorated seriously because of an inoperable brain tumor, so she entered Eventide Rest Home in 1974.