Virginia Bock
One hundred years ago, she was the New Years baby.
Lifelong Seward County resident Virginia Bock celebrated her 100th birthday Jan. 1.
Bock was born Jan. 1, 1918, at her home in Garland.
Her father was a banker who owned the Germantown bank in Garland, a building that is on the National Register of Historic Places today.
Bock was the daughter of August and Minnie Beckman. She was the youngest of 10 including five brothers and four sisters.
Virginia and her late husband, Carl, raised three daughters: Karen, Ila and Damaris.
She went to a parochial school until eighth grade and graduated from Garland High School in 1936.
Two years after high school, she and Carl married.
When her youngest daughter was 9, she began working at Russell Stover’s in Lincoln where she worked for 23 years. She remembers putting labels on the chocolate boxes as well as doing gift wrapping.
Bock has memories of stopping at the bank on her way home from school as a child.
“My brother and sister worked there, so I always stopped in there,” she said.
She is a lifelong member of Zion Lutheran Church.
When asked about the secret to celebrating her 100th birthday, she said she ate good and had a good family.
“I didn’t have hardly any worries,” she said.
Forty family members gathered to celebrate her birthday on Jan. 1 at Brookdale Heartland Park in Seward. The celebration included lunch and a memory activity where family members shared special memories of their time with Bock. The celebration included her numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She has been a resident at Brookdale for 5 years and enjoys visiting with her friends. She was able to live at her home in Garland until she was 95 because of family and neighbors checking in on her regularly. Her daughter said she had good neighbors who watched out for her.
Throughout her life, Bock has enjoyed baking pies and cookies and cooking.
