Virginia Belle (Tolle) Smith, of Bridgeport, left us on April 18th, 2011 at the Morrill County Community Hospital at the age of 97 years, 10 months, and 26 days.
A service honoring her life will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, April 23, 2011 at the Church of Christ in Bridgeport with Pastor Jonathan Seng officiating. Inurnment will be held at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Kowanda cemetery south of Oshkosh.
A Book Signing will be held on Friday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Holechek Funeral Home in Oshkosh with the family present.
A memorial has been established to the Church of Christ in Bridgeport or Heritage of Bridgeport.
Family and friends may sign the guest book and leave condolences online at www.holechekfuneralhomes.com.
Holechek Funeral Home & Cremations in Oshkosh is serving the Smith family.
Survivors include her children, Anna May and Roy Sauder of Bridgeport, Richard Smith of Lake McConaughy, and Carol Smith of Kimball; 8 grandchildren, Brad and Sue Sauder, Faye Hart, Terry Maricle, Kim Oliver, Kelly and Warren Smith, Karrie and John Griego, Kristi Smith, and Corey Annibal; 19 great-grandchildren; and numerous great-great grandchildren and other extended family.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband Oscar Smith; 2 sisters, Grace and Margaret; 3 step-sisters, Maude, Florence, and Helen; an infant brother; and one great grandchild.
She was born May 22, 1913 to Charles and Alta May (Zimmerman) Tolle at their home east of Bridgeport, in rural Morrill County. She attended county school through her first 2 years of high school in Oshkosh before graduating from Lodgepole High School in May of 1931.
On November 12, 1932, Virginia Belle Tolle married Oscar Smith at the Rush Creek Ranch. They lived on a farm east of Bridgeport for 2 years where they were blessed with a daughter, Anna May. Interestingly, Anna May was born in the same bedroom Virginia was born 20 years prior. They then moved to Victorville, California where they lived on an alfalfa ranch where they were blessed with 2 more children; a son, Richard Lloyd, and a daughter, Carol Yvonne. They moved back to Nebraska in 1940 to raise their family and farm in the Kowanda Community. Virginia worked beside her husband on the farm until 1956 when she began working at the Oshkosh Hospital. They relocated to Oshkosh in 1960. In 1984 she retired from Oshkosh Hospital and moved with her husband to their daughter and son-in-law’s farm east of Bridgeport due to Oscar’s Alzheimer’s. The farm was originally her father’s homestead. She devotedly cared for her husband for several years before he passed away on October 1, 1990.
Virginia was active in both the Kowanda and Oshkosh communities. She was a member of the Kowanda Methodist Church, as well as, the Oshkosh Methodist Church. She committed her life to the Lord on November 2, 1987 at the Church of Christ in Bridgeport and was immersed in the State Lakes. She was an honorary member of the Just Rite Extension Club in Oshkosh as well as an honorary member of the Extension Club in Morrill County, the same one as her mother was a member of.
Virginia was devoted to her family and lived her life to the fullest.