Virginia (Tanko) DiDonato ranks as one of the best basketball players in Bartlett High history.

Ginni, as she prefers to be called, played and lettered for four years in basketball, and was team captain her senior year.

During the 1959-60 season, the team went undefeated, in part due to Ginni’s contributions and the coaching of Cis Ingraham.

Ginni also played softball in her senior year. The sport was introduced at Bartlett High in that 1960 season.

During her high school years, Ginni served as a Webster Times reporter, writing a “Student of the Week” column during her senior year, 1959-60. She also was a member of the National Honor Society.

Her post-Bartlett High portfolio includes being a member of the Scarlet Key, an All University honor society, while at Boston University. She has been listed in the Who’s Who among colleges and universities, and received a Dean of Women’s Award while in college.

She plays golf and won the Webster-Dudley Golf Club’s President’s Cup in 1998 and 2000. She was a Flight A Champion in 1991 and 1994.

Ginni has coached softball in the Dudley Lassie League and organized the Webster-Dudley Crop Walk, participating in the event for 16 years.

She is a financial planner for Lincoln Financial.

Ginni’s husband, Leonard Didonato is deceased. She makes her home in Dudley and has two daughters, Debbie Tagg, 38 and Pamela O’Sullivan, 37, and one son, Jeff Didonato, 36. She has four grandchildren, Nicholas, Kristin, Julia, and Jack.