Neighbors fumed when someone took a Fripp Island ‘icon.’ What happened to Virginia?
Virginia has been a fixture in her Fripp Island neighborhood for more than two decades.
She’s faithfully watched over the daily comings and goings of the neighborhood from her post on the front porch – always glamorously dressed. That is, if she isn’t participating in parades or attending weddings.
Phyllis Conrad has dressed up the mannequin for every holiday since she moved to Fripp Island in 1997.
“She has become a total icon, and people cannot get enough of her,” Conrad said.
On New Year’s Day, around 5 a.m., Virginia was taken, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.
Conrad watched a recording of the abduction and was frightened that someone was so close to her home. In the security footage, a person can be seen grabbing Virginia by the waist and tossing her over the porch railing to an accomplice below. The two got away with Virginia, leaving behind a detachable arm, her head, a wig and a necklace.
For Virginia, this is nothing new. Conrad estimates her mannequin has been taken four times. Several years ago, also over a New Year’s holiday, Virginia was taken from the porch while wearing Conrad’s full-length, vintage mink fur coat.
“I was absolutely furious,” Conrad said. “The next day, security found most of her, but the coat was gone.”
The coat was later returned by mail with no return address.
On Thursday, Virginia’s most recent captors followed this same pattern and returned her with $200. This time, however, there was an apology. Conrad said she believes Virginia’s captors are young and is glad they returned her with compensation.
“I’m really grateful to everybody,” Conrad said. “I think it’s because it went all over the internet that this kid or his family realized that they needed to fix it.”
Conrad said she forgives the person who took Virginia and has no hard feelings.
“He made it right, and I hope he’s learned a valuable lesson,” Conrad said.
For friends and neighbors, many of who have grown up with Virginia and her dazzling outfits, the theft is troubling.
Posts on Facebook and neighborhood sites were flooded with “irate” messages, Conrad said. Everyone on Fripp Island knows the “mannequin estate” and will rally behind Virginia when the need arises.
“I’m real tired of it, to tell you the truth, but it just makes people smile and have fun, so I keep doing it,” Conrad said.
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‘Friendly guardian’
Jeanne Sargent, a Fripp Islander for over 20 years, and her six children have regarded Virginia as the “friendly guardian of the neighborhood,” and her grandchildren now do the same.
“She never fails to bring a smile to those who see her,” Sargent said.
To Linda Freeman, who has lived on the island since 2007, Virginia is a symbol of all the good that Fripp has to offer.
“Virginia has marked the growth of our children, the passage of the seasons and our recovery from both Matthew and Irma,” Freeman said referring to the hurricanes that struck the area in 2016 and 2017. “She has greeted our newcomers and bid farewell to those who moved away.”
Despite Virginia’s “adventures and quite a history” of hijinks and abductions, Conrad said, she will up the security around the mannequin. No concrete plans have been made yet, all she knows is that Virginia is there to stay.
“I’m just the mannequin keeper.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2022 at 1:56 PM.
