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Lyme - Virginia M. Paradis, 71, died peacefully with complete grace and dignity on Friday, October 14, at Bayview Health Center, Waterford.Virginia was born in 1934, the daughter of John and Mary Leonard, of Peabody, Mass. She was educated at St. John Girls High School in Peabody then attended Salem State Teachers College.She married William Benjamin Paradis on New Years Eve of 1955 at St. Ann Church in Peabody.Ginny, as she was known, also leaves behind a lifetime of community service. While raising six children, she participated in and supported the Brownies, Cub Scout, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and 4-H in Maryland and Lyme. She was an active participant in several area schools, as a proctor at St. Bernard High School in Uncasville, on the Parents Advisory Board and as a member of Friends of Music at Lyme/Old Lyme High School; and she was active for over 30 years at Lyme Consolidated Grammar School where the Ginny Paradis Service Award was created in 1987 in recognition of her dedication. She was founding member and secretary of the Ruth Ann Heller Music Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing scholarships to deserving music students. She was also an active member of the Roman Catholic Church. Ginny served the church by teaching CCD classes, guiding her six children and their classmates through First Communion and Confirmation. She co-coordinated the Funeral Ministry at Christ the King Church in Old Lyme for many years.Ginny also worked as a volunteer at the Soup Kitchen on Montauk Avenue in New London as a cook and server and for over twenty years for Meals on Wheels, preparing and delivering meals to people in the mid-coast area.In addition to her husband of 50 years, she is survived by six children, Lee Ann Paradis and her husband, James Venditto Jr., William Paradis Jr., Dawn M. Peret, Kim T. Blanchard and her husband, Alan, Alan D. Paradis and his wife, Caryn, and Kristian L. Paradis; two brothers, Rev. John Charles Leonard and George Leonard; a sister, Joanne Powers; and eight grandchildren, Corey, Taryn, Samuel, Kelley, Travis, Michael, Grant and Vivian.She was predeceased by her brother, James Leonard.A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated by her brother, Rev. John Leonard, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2005 at Christ the King Church, 1 McCurdy Road, Old Lyme. There will be a reception after the Mass in the parish center of the church. A graveside service will be held following the reception at 2 p.m. at Eight Mile River Cemetery, Lyme. Friends may call on Friday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Fulton- Theroux Funeral Home, Beckwith Lane, Old Lyme.In lieu of flowers, donations may be made, at Ginny's request, to Christ the King Church Funeral Ministry Endowment, 1 McCurdy Road, Old Lyme, CT 06371.Published in The Day on 10/19/2005.