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About Ginger Virginia Jeananne DeSalvo was born November 27, 1970, in Austin, Texas. She graduated from Topeka West High School and was a member of the Topeka West Singers. Ginger went on to graduate from the University of Kansas where she was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. Ginger loved animals, music, singing, and most of all spending time with family and friends. She loved her husband, Chris DeSalvo, who she met at KU. Chris was a waiter at the Alpha Chi House and he and Ginger became fast friends. They were married in the summer of 1994. Ginger was always working to earn more money to keep up with her shopping habits. She started working for Express (women's clothing) in high school. Of course, they loved Ginger, and always asked her to work when she came back to Topeka for breaks from KU. In Ginger's last years at KU, she also worked at Shadow Glen with Chris and some of her best friends from the Alpha Chi house. After college, Ginger took on a sales position for Gateway where she was very successful and was quickly promoted to District Manager. At this point Ginger was suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis, but she never complained about it to anyone and she didn't let it get her down. She just kept on working and doing the things she loved. Ultimately, Ginger's arthritis developed into the most severe form of Lupus which Ginger, with her ever-present humor, referred to as "Super Lupus". She learned that she must be her own advocate and she challenged many doctors and specialists. She was always optimistic and never gave up in her quest to find a treatment so that she could live a life without pain. Ginger spent most of the last 6 months of her life at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and lost her battle to Lupus on October 9th, 2003. The Ginger's Tomorrow Foundation was founded to honor Ginger's memory and to carry out her hopes and dreams for a cure for Lupus.
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