Chasin' a ghost !.

[Ivan Kelsall]

I'm in touch by e-mail with several Cafe members in the USA, & during a recent e-mail 'discussion' that arose from an on-going Cafe thread,a few of us discovered that we had a favourite Bill Monroe song in common - ''With Body & Soul'', written by a lady named Virginia Stauffer. So,in order to ''put a face to the name'',we looked in our Bill Monroe books & i looked in my ''Bluegrass Odyssey'' book ,& we came up with precisely zilch !.

Other than what i've read in the books written about Bill Monroe,i know nothing about the lady,but it seems very odd that in the dozens (100's ?) of pics. available,there's not one of Virginia Stauffer to be found.

It sounds like another Mulder & Scully case to me - oooooeeeeeeoooo
Ivan

[Bill Snyder]

Not a picture but a notice of her passing http://bluegrasstoday.com/virginia-mae-stauffer-passes/

[Timbofood]

The truth is out there.....

[Bernie Daniel]

The truth is out there.....

Yes if probably is.

According to Bill's biographies Virginia Stauffer traveled with the Bluegrass Boys in the 1965 - 1669 time period. Before 1964 if would have been "awkward" becasue his other girl friend (or common law wife?) Bessie Lee Muldin was the bass player in the band -- but she quit in 1964 because she realized that she was no longer the first in affection? Or at least that is the speculation.

Near as I can tell from what is written in sources like "Can't you hear me call'n" (by Richard Smith) around 1970 Bill moved out of his Goodlettesville farm house and into Virginia's home next to her trailer park.

It is hard to piece it together exactly but it seems like Bill did not leave Virginia's home until around 1976 when he moved back to his farm with Julia Labella.

The fact that there are no pictures of Virginia when she was close to Bill Monroe, in fact even living with him for close to a decade is more than odd -- it's creepy. (In contrast there are pictures of Bessie and Julia).

[Pasha Alden]

Camera shy? Or a ghost? Or some conspiracy? <smile>

[Ivan Kelsall]

From Pasha Alden - "Or some conspiracy ?" Ok y'all, whaddaya know,whaddaya know,come clean !!!!!,
Ivan
Errr hello - is that the President ? (forthcoming phone call alert) About area 51 Sir ......

[Pasha Alden]

well there must be something to say for aliens even those composing for mandolin or playing mandolin, those who cannot be tracked? Right?
Nudge, nudge, wink wink....

[F-2 Dave]

It is said she managed a trailer park, and had her own trailer. Have you ever noticed how the Airstream travel trailer look kinda like an alien spacecraft? Coincidence? Or do we just need to connect the dots?

[Steve Ostrander]

It is said she managed a trailer park, and had her own trailer. Have you ever noticed how the Airstream travel trailer look kinda like an alien spacecraft? Coincidence? Or do we just need to connect the dots?

I think that Airstreams look like a big silver Twinkie....

[Bernie Daniel]

It is said she managed a trailer park, and had her own trailer. Have you ever noticed how the Airstream travel trailer look kinda like an alien spacecraft? Coincidence? Or do we just need to connect the dots?

In this case the challenge is not connecting the dots it is finding them in the first place.

Bill Monroe lived in "that trailer" with Virginia Stauffer from the perhaps 1970 until July of 1976. But it was not something he publicly acknowledged --when he was interviewed by Country Music in 1975 (published in May, 1976) he told them he lived in an apartment in Nashville. Untrue. Even he owned such an apartment it was not one that he was living in.

By July, 1976 Bill's main "significant other" interest had become Julia Labella and he moved back to this farm in Goodlettsville with Julia because Bessie Mauldin had finally moved out after her law suite against Bill was finally settled. Don't know what Virginia felt about her change in status - her story has never been told.

You can find published pictures of many of Bill Monroe's other girl friends like Bessie Mauldin, or Hazel Smith or Julia Labella with Bill -- but not Virginia. If fact, there do not appear to be any pictures of her publicly published or on the internet.

Taking it a bit further, even some who knew Bill when he was living say they never met Virginia. She was either very camera shy or she was able to bend light and become invisible when she wanted. So if you wanted sci-fi?

[Pasha Alden]

Well, there is one truth out there: Different strokes for different folks? SciFi and all. <smile>

[Bernie Daniel]

Well, there is one truth out there: Different strokes for different folks? SciFi and all. <smile>

As Bill Monroe might have said - I think you are right about that. Like the OP I would like to know a little bit of the truth about Virginia Stauffer too.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Nobody actually 'saw' Virginia Stauffer - weird !!!. Maybe VS was another one of Bill Monroe's alias names,like ''Joe Ahr'' ??. If nobody ever saw her,it's as good a guess as any (I don't really believe that).

There must be some reason why no photographs of a person so involved with Bill Monroe for so long are forthcoming. What that reason is,maybe we'll never know - unless somebody has 'buried info.',
Ivan

[Pasha Alden]

Well, it is hard to imagine being that camera shy, but I guess it takes all types to make the world and as you say Ivan, perhaps we will never know the reason for the low key presence of vs.

[CherylK]

There is a photo of Virginia Stauffer with Bill Monroe taken in 1966 in Tom Ewing's book "Bill Monroe: The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man." The book also has pictures of Carolyn (Brown) and Melissa Monroe. Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to upload a photo.