The soft demeanor of Vienna Cobb Anderson ’53 belies a lifelong search for purpose. At St. Catherine’s, her red tresses and unusual first name were not the only things that set her apart from other students. While the times dictated that a woman’s place was in the home as a wife and mother, Anderson absorbed independence modeled by her mother and grandmother. Despite being “literally and figuratively girdled”, these women found creative ways to circumvent a life of subservience. As a young woman, Anderson’s mother worked in the Department of Transportation. During World War II, Anderson helped her grandmother bundle newspapers collected from neighbors. When enough bundles warranted a trip, they took them to a recycler in Petersburg. Proceeds were then donated to Retreat Hospital, allowing procurement of needed linens. Anderson developed a sense that she “had something to do, a journey I needed to go on to discover who I was.”

Deemed too young at age 7 to attend the funeral of her resourceful grandmother, Anderson remembers the long, lonely walk that day down the hall of Bacot; that evening she had a dream that haunted her for 20 years. In it, she floated down a long corridor, only to find a void at its end. She woke wondering, “Who was I before I was born, and who will I be when I die?” This ignited the lifelong drive to explore, learn, seek, stretch…deliberately straying from society’s proscribed path, breaking barriers both physical and societal, studying overseas, earning advanced degrees from Yale and Princeton, serving in the ministry at a time when women clergy were rare. Channeling the creative women in her life, she authored books and created jewelry and art with brush and needle.  She is currently working on a needlepoint detail of a Madonna icon for the Washington Cathedral, where she was ordained as one of the first women priests in the Episcopal Church. She has a book in the works, and she remains involved in countless ways at St. James’s Episcopal. She drives a sporty little car and her apartment is alive with pieces from her travels. At 82, Anderson isn’t ready to go quietly into that good night.