Virginia was born on August 9, 1906, the third of five children who would be born to famous silent screen star Francis X. Bushman and his first wife, Josephine Fladine Duval. At the time, both Bushman and his studio took great pains to preserve the myth that the movie heartthrob was a bachelor, so the existence of his family was kept secret from his fans. This did not deter the young Virginia from following in her famous father's footsteps. At the age of 18 she signed a contract with MGM. She would appear in three films, mostly small roles: "The Road to Mandalay" (1926); "Playing the Swell" (1926); "The Cradle Snatchers" (1927). By then she had met Hugh Ryan ("Jack") Conway, former actor turned busy director at MGM, who was 20 years her senior. They married on September 21, 1926, when Virginia was just 20. Her husband did not want his wife working in films, so she gave up her acting career. The acting "bug," however, would later resurface in one of their children.

Virginia helped raise her husband's child by his first marriage, a daughter named Rosemary. They had two sons of their own: Michael Everley, born in 1928, and Patrick Douglas, born in 1931. The family resided on a 125-acre ranch called All Hallows Farm in the Pacific Palisades. Michael would grow up to develop a career in business, but Patrick decided to pursue the family profession of acting, and not with his father's approval. He gained some prominence acting in movies and television in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He starred in the 1950's TV western, "Tombstone Territory," for three years. Sadly, he died at the age of 50 in 1981.

Jack Conway died in 1952, leaving Virginia a young widow. On December 24, 1954, she remarried, this time to Peter M. Stuart , who died in 1977, again leaving a widowed Virginia. She herself was 94 when she died on July 14, 2001, in Banning, California.