Virginia Cates Obituary, Published by Legacy Remembers on Nov. 23, 2024.
On October 23, 2024, Virginia Gruyé Cates of Oakdale CA, passed away peacefully at home with her loving husband Dennis Cates and devoted daughter Michelle Gruyé-Hallam by her side, after a very sudden decline in her health. Virginia was 87 years of age.
Virginia was born on July 24, 1937 in Anoka, Minnesota, to father Raymond Gruyé and mother Florence Gruyé. Her special talents became apparent at an early age through her inquisitiveness, insatiable curiosity, and affinity for books even before she could read. In elementary school, she won a poetry contest among many students who entered the competition. Then, when her mother bought a grand piano, she pressed her to get her music lessons and progressed rapidly as an amateur pianist.
Later, while in high school, Virginia broadened her love of music when her parents moved from their beloved but cold Minneapolis environment to sunny Long Beach, California, moving near her brother Dale who was a gifted student at the world-renowned school of art and design, Art Center, in Los Angeles. This move expanded her music predilections, introducing rhythm and blues on Watts radio, and opening her up to the jazz scene in Venice, California. Here she made many friends through her prior friendship with "the Doublemint Twins," old pals from Minnesota and popular representatives of Chicago's Wrigley gum fame.
As Virginia reached college age in the middle '50s, her family returned to Minneapolis, and Virginia chose to pay her own way into the University of Minnesota by modeling fur coats and fancy dresses at the famous Bjorkman's department store. In college, she blossomed as an art major with a minor in psychology. She later was able to apply her skills from academia in both subjects, first applying her medical background to gain employment at the Sister Kenny clinic, then upon moving to Denver, Colorado, working at an institute for the severely emotionally disabled. Finally, she found it necessary to move to Sunnyvale, California, to nurse her mother who was failing in health from breast cancer, and to also be near her brother Dale who was becoming a well-established industrial designer at GVO (Gruyé-Vogt-Oppeman, Inc.). Virginia was pregnant with her only child during this episode and daughter Michelle was born prematurely just days after Virginia's mom passed away.
Faced with the need of sudden employment, Virginia turned to the Kaiser Permanente Medical Facility in Santa Clara and then their clinic in Sunnyvale, where she was gainfully employed as a medical records specialist for 17 years. During that time, she raised Michelle as single mother providing a nurturing environment that fostered growth, self-reliance, creativity, and well-being.
In the last two years working at Kaiser, she married teacher, musician, and love of her life, Dennis Cates, who she met at an outdoor art, jazz, and wine festival in Los Gatos, California. This led her to being freed to work toward her second career, wisely applying her major in art to become an interior designer. Not to be unemployed while attending night classes in interior architecture, Virginia applied the decoration skills she was learning to furniture sales for several big-named furniture stores in the San Jose area, including Russell's, Breuners, and Eastern, becoming a leading salesperson at all three stores.
Virginia started her own design business even before finishing as the top student of her class. Many nights, Dennis would grade papers in the West Valley College library while Virginia attended classes. Moreover, she earned her ASID and CCIDC certifications, even while working part time and cofounding the Foundation for Mind Being Research (FMBR) with Bill Gough, former CEO of the US Department of Energy, and Princeton graduate. Of course this was an extension of Virginia's spiritually-inspired talents and love of Carl Jung, Kurt Godel, Carl Sagan, Gary Zuckoff, Steven Pinker, and others. FMBR is still in the vanguard of those serious about advancing the quest of higher consciousness by merging scientific research and spiritual development of the individual being.
Virginia and Dennis were like "two peas in a pod" celebrating life through their interest in FMBR, with explorations, lectures, outings and seminars. They roamed the Pacific Northwest in their RV, often ending up along the Monterey Coast or the Napa and Sonoma wine country for music gigs or jazz events combined with camping, hiking, wine tasting, and enjoying the treasure of nature.
Dennis often claimed that he benefited from Virginia's love and admiration of her remarkable father, Raymond, and artistic family, as well as their both being children of the same World War II era only 10 months apart in age and experience. He claimed that she was Swedish on the outside and Swiss-German philosopher on the inside. Virginia liked to tell the story of how she found Dennis intuitively and just sat down beside him at age 42 and with amazing chemistry, they naturally evolved and lasted for the next 44 years of their life together.
Michelle is grateful to have had such an amazing mother, and will never forget all of the wonderful things she taught her throughout her life. They were like "best friends," sharing many great memories together exploring nature, cities, arts and crafts, music, cooking, and conversation. For many years, they were die-hards for the immersive historical experience of the annual Renaissance Faire held in Black Point Forest, Novato, California, and often "dressed" for the occasion. Because of her, Michelle's dreams, achievements, and life was bigger.
Virginia is predeceased by her sister, Donna, and two brothers, Glenn and Dale.
Virginia was a beautiful, tenacious, and vibrant wife, mother, and professional who had a profound influence on many lives. She was an unforgettable and truly remarkable human being. She will be forever cherished and missed.