News

By Emily J. Minor

    DELRAY BEACH — Virginia Wesley Courtenay, a prominent interior designer who, in her 40 years in town, redecorated everything from the Florida governor’s mansion to a neighbor’s tiny kitchen, died Nov. 29 at her home under hospice care. She recently had turned 80.
    Mrs. Courtenay was the longtime owner of Virginia Courtenay Interiors Inc. on Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach. Her design partner, Hazel McGuire, who had worked with Mrs. Courtenay for some 13 years, said the business will certainly continue. Indeed a new shop will open in January, McGuire said.
    “She certainly had an eye for the unusual,” McGuire said. “If you wanted the mundane, if you wanted Rooms To Go, we weren’t for you.”
    Born in Chicago, the daughter of a lamp designer and the granddaughter of an architect and builder, Mrs. Courtenay is said to have chosen the arts at an early age. She attended Beloit College, the Art Institute of Chicago and Ecole des Beaux Arts in France. She quickly established her passion for 18th-century antiques and interior design.
    But office manager Greg Kirkpatrick, who started doing Mrs. Courtenay’s company books about two years ago, said his boss had a wonderful knack of interpreting all different kinds of styles, and bringing them to life.
    “Everyone who worked with her and who had hired her, they all said she had very good taste and was just so knowledgeable about design, carpets, wall coverings, paint,” Kirkpatrick said.
    It wasn’t anything catastrophic that claimed Mrs. Courtenay’s life. Friends said she had been recuperating from a fall when she began to develop complications that inhibited her movements even further.  A widow since the death of her husband, Erskine Howard Courtenay Jr., Mrs. Courtenay was attended to by her three stepchildren.
    The family arranged for hospice care so that Mrs. Courtenay could rest peacefully before she died, Kirkpatrick said.
    From singing in the church choir, to doting on her Scotty dogs, Mrs. Courtenay was also a private woman who exuded “a special elegance,” McGuire said.
    In healthier days, she enjoyed tennis, photography, painting, cooking and boating.
    Her professional accomplishments never ceased to amaze, and her portfolio was full of beautiful projects that seemed to mix just the right amounts of color, texture and light. Her designs were sometimes whimsical, sometimes old school. But they were always magnificent, McGuire said.
    Some of her accomplishments include: president of the South Florida Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers and national board member; appointment to the governor’s design team refreshing the Florida governor’s mansion in Tallahassee; member of the Delray Beach and National Historical Preservation societies; member of the Old School Square Board and chairwoman of many designer showcase homes for various charities. 
    She and her husband were once active members of The Little Club, Colony Beach Club, Gulfstream Bath & Tennis and The Louisville Country Club. She is survived by her three stepchildren, Andrea C. Spradling (Mark), Whitley H. Courtenay (Mary Ann) and Erskine H. Courtenay III (Dawn).
    A funeral Mass was said Dec. 12 at her beloved parish, St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church.
The new store will open Jan. 2 at 2915 S. Federal Highway, Suite D3, Delray Beach.