She taught at Black schools and colleges in the southern United States for over a decade before returning to New Hampshire, where she worked for her alma mater from 1951 to 1973.

[3] Virgil enrolled at the University of New Hampshire, where she was active in the glee and other student clubs, played piano and organ, and co-founded the Treble Clefs, a group of singers.

Still unable to find a teaching position on account of her race, she worked a variety of jobs, serving as a secretary at a doctor's office, a clerk-typist at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and a demonstrator of gas appliances.

In 1951, she became a clerk in the soil conservation department at the University of New Hampshire, where she entered data and typed scientific reports, among other responsibilities.

[3] In 1991, a few months before Virgil's death, UNH commissioned Grant Drumheller to paint her portrait.