Virginia De Courcey (1950-1986), was born on a ranch near Savageton, Wyoming, the third of four children. Following the death of her father, when she was six, the family moved to Colorado Springs.

From age 16 to 20, DeCourcey worked as an editorial editor, with her own column, for the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. During this same period she attended the Freedom School ("Rampart College"), a small private school near Colorado Springs, founded by Robert Lefevre, and dedicated to teaching free market and anti-government principles. After Lefevre moved to California, DeCourcey carried on an extensive correspondence with him which he later used as the basis for a book on libertarian principles.

Subsequently DeCourcey earned a BA from Rockford College, with a double major in Classics and Philosophy. Her time at Rockford College was distinguished by two notable achievements. She was awarded the first Honors Degree in Philosophy in the history of the college for her paper, "Justice as a Metaethical Absolute," which she defended before a committee of outside readers, and she was also the only student in the history of the college to be denounced by name by the President in front of a mandatory meeting of the entire college faculty, for her articles, interviews and editorials during the ideologically-based faculty purges of 1975 under President John Howard.

DeCourcey went on to study rare books and manuscripts for a year at the University of Chicago, and later attended the graduate program in journalism for a year at the University of Minnesota.