Wicks, Virginia Fern (Quandahl) 1930-2011
WICKS, QUANDAHL, WALTER, OLSON, ABELE, PETERSEN, STRICKLAND, IBELING
Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 2/8/2013 at 14:31:35
Source: Decorah Public Opinion October 11, 2011
Virginia Wicks
Virginia Fern Wicks, 80, of Harmony, Minn., died Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, at the Harmony Health Care facility in Harmony, Minn., after a courageous two-month battle with pancreatic cancer. The Lindstrom Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Services are 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, at the Greenfield Lutheran Church in Harmony, with Rev. Betsy Dartt and Pastor Kyle Jackson officiating. Burial is in the Burr Oak Cemetery, Burr Oak. Visitation was at the Lindstrom Funeral Home in Harmony, from 5 – 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10, and also is one hour before the service at the church.
Virginia F. Quandahl was born Dec. 11, 1930, at her grandfather’s farm in Bluffton Township, Winneshiek Co., to Harry M. and Vera D. (Walter) Quandahl. She was baptized and confirmed in the Burr Oak Lutheran Church. She grew up on the family farm in Burr Oak Township, attending nearby Lost Nation School, District No. 8 and graduated from Decorah High School in 1949. After high school she went to work for Northwestern Bell Telephone in Decorah, first as an operator and then as a business office clerk.
Virginia was united in marriage with Marvin Wicks, son of Claude and Olive (Olson) Wicks, in the Burr Oak Lutheran Church Sept. 20, 1952, with Rev. Erling Wold officiating. To the union, four children were born. As Marvin was in the U.S. Air Force, they traveled extensively and served in Texas, Kansas, Virginia, Illinois, the United Kingdom and Japan. After retiring from the Air Force in 1971, they operated a dairy farm near Eyota, Minn., moving to Harmony in 1995.
Virginia worked for Daytons Department store in Rochester for 13 years as a PBX operator. She served on the board of Olmsted County Farm Bureau, the Olmsted County United Way and Sons of Norway. She was very active in church programs on the many military installations and local churches where they were stationed. In Japan she worked with a local Japanese school in their English language program. Volunteering to serve the needs of the Church and community support programs remained an interest in her years of retirement. Virginia cherished the many friendships made in her varied life experiences and was ever grateful to each for the moments they had shared.
Survivors include her husband, Marvin; three daughters: Gail Abele of Highland Village, Texas; Amy Petersen of Albert Lea, Minn.; Laura (Donald) Strickland of Ft. Worth, Texas; one son, Clinton (Jean) Wicks of Dodge Center, Minn,; six grandchildren: Cory Wicks, James (Jennifer) Wicks, Torrance and Addison Petersen, Augustus and Alison Strickland; three great-grandchildren; one sister, Laverne Ibeling of Ackley; one sister-in-law, Verna Quandahl of Spring Grove, Minn.; and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; two brothers, Arthur in 1994 and Robert in 1995; and a brother-in-law, George Ibeling, in 2010.
Transcribed from a newspaper clipping submitted by Janice Sowers.
Burr Oak Cemetery
Winneshiek Obituaries maintained by Bruce Kuennen.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen