A Life Well Spent

WHITNEY, BOESCH, BOSCH, LAZENBY, BLACKBURN

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 11/14/2014 at 02:40:39

**Handwritten: 1973

A Life Well Spent

We think our readers would be inspired by the story of a former Keosauqua girl's life of service, as written by her lawyer and the administrator of her estate, as a trbute(err) to her.

Marguerite Whitney Boesch was born and raised in Keosauqua, the daughter of Carlton and Carrie Whitney. She passed away last spring and was buried in Oak Lawn Cemetery, here.

She was a step-cousin of Dave Lazenby and Vee Blackburn of Keosauqua.

Her will has been probated and several smaller bequests have been received in Van Buren County, already. The final balance of her estate which is thought to be no small amount will be given to an organization in Van Buren County.

The Tribute follows:

25,000 Hours Plus!

The death of a community leader, a politician, big initial gift donors (invariably characterized as philanthropists), and occasionally the violent and abrupt end of a notorious character such as "Lightin" Johnson will evoke a literary send-off for the delectation of those news print intelligentia, to whom the editorial page is spiritual food and drink.

The following concerns the passing of one of our fellow citizens of the sort who rarely, if ever, receives any public recognition for a life well spent.

She was an unprepossessing slip of matured womanhood-thin to the point of emaciation. As she alighted from her small car this brutal winter past, when the wind chill index was at low sub-zero, atop the hill where the VA Hospital stands, any observant sporting man might lay odds of ten to one this frail creature would not make it to the warmth within.

The wind slapped her cloth coat cruelly about those sparrow thin legs, as she doggedly made her torturous way from the visitors' parking area, and before the coursing, keening wind, her reed-like body appeared ready to snap at any moment.

Her age was a lady's top secret. The paid announcement of the mortuary allowed seventy-two - the funeral home hand out seventy years, eleven months and some odd days. A retired middle-aged World War I sailor observed "The World-Herald's off about ten years, hain't it?"

Marguerite W. Bosch, what ever her chronological reckoning may have been, was ageless. To thousands of World War I, World War II, Korean and Vietnam veterans she shall remain always a legendary angel of mercy, compassion and kindness& - incongruously operating as mean and tough as a Marine D.I.

The outward appearance of this patrician widowed lady was disarming widowed lady was disarming and beguiling. Marguerite, in every sense of the word, was a genuine lady of remarkable sensitivity, and yet within her was steel as hard tempered and sharp as a bayonet.

She was the widow of a Marine. Her husband, John, had served the Corps for thirty honorable years when he retired shortly before his death in 1954. Following his death, Marguerite Bosch(sp) became one of American's productive unsung Veterans Hospital Volunteers.

In 1941 she had been State President of the American Legion Auxiliary for the Nebraska Department and she appreciated the motivation of a true volunteer.

The word "volunteer" in these days when military deserters and draft dodgers lolling in Canada have become "moral heroes" may well be a dirty word.

Nevertheless, to the amputees, the paraplegics, the mentally disturbed, the ordinary terminal cancer patients, to those patients at the Omaha VA facility broken in body, mind and health, the volunteer contributions of Marguerite Bosch(sp) have been of incalculable value.

Marguerite Bosch(sp) commenced her contributions when the Omaha V.A. Hospital opened its doors. Along the way, in recognition of her selfless dedication to suffering mankind, there were inscribed upon a modest silver plate these words: "To Marguerite W. Bosch in Grateful Appreciation of 25,000 Hours of Volunteer Service to Hospitalized Veterans."

25,000 hours! One million five hundred thousand minutes of her life's allotment. Six hundred twenty-five 40 - hour weeks dedicated and consecrated to a labor of love and mercy - have now passed into eternity along with Marguerite W. Bosch.

Many of those patients, who have survived their particular ordeal at Omaha's Veterans Hospital may not remember her name. They will not forget, however, the brisk, brusque, leather tough old gal who made their stay there more pleasant and endurable-or possibly bedeviled them into the will to fight and live!

Marguerite continued with her "work" and "her boys" at the V.A. Hospital through Sunday, March 11, 1973. She was laid to rest beside her deceased Marine husband, John, at Keosauqua, Iowa, on March 17, 1973 in a bright, spit shiny blue casket to match his "dress blues."

Marguerite leaves no know blood relative to mark or mourn her passing in Omaha at noon on March 14, 1973-neither chick nor child. Nevertheless, a goodly company of the patients who left the V.A. Hospital in Omaha by the back door, will remember Marguerite and be on hand to welcome her to the eternal shores, where, indeed, she will find the United States Marines posting guard.

May the God of Marine top sargeants receive you Marguerite Bosch and compensate you adequately and fully for your 25,000 hours - Plus.

**Note: Marguerite's last name is spelled as "Boesch" and Bosch in this story. In her aunt's obituary, Lena Viola Prall, it is spelled "Bosch".

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book D, Page 198, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA