Virginia Roberts Krueger
The oldest living Texan – who spent her childhood in Dripping Springs – died on June 14, 2018 at the age of 108. Virginia Roberts Krueger was quick to laugh, would put you at ease right away and was not much interested in talking about herself. Virginia knew how to listen and liked nothing better than having a good long conversation.
Born on April 1, 1910, the oldest daughter of Mayme and James Roberts, Virginia’s world shifted when her father, a sheriff, was killed in 1916. Her mother, then pregnant, brought Virginia and two siblings to Dripping Springs to live on her parents’ ranch. Virginia would tell her grandchildren about that dusty train ride and how a gust of wind blew her red velvet hat out the window as the train left Colorado. Virginia pleaded with her mother to make the conductor stop the train but the little hat would never be recovered.
Virginia’s mother left Dripping Springs for Austin, where she had 23 male boarders, students from the University of Texas who came to her house for their meals. In 1927, the day after a storm rolled through Austin, a friend of one of those students – a young chemical engineering student named Elton Krueger – caught sight of Virginia when she was sweeping the sidewalk. That was it for Elton. He asked Virginia out and although she had told her sisters that she did not care for blond men, she found that she liked this blond man quite a lot.
When the City of Monterrey’s Power and Electric Company contacted the Engineering Department at UT, asking for their best engineering students, Elton’s name was at the top of the list. When he was offered the job in Monterrey, Elton asked Virginia if she would marry him and move to Mexico. Although Virginia had just began her classes at UT, she saw moving with Elton to Mexico as a grand adventure and abandoned her plan to get a college degree.
Elton and Virginia were married in Laredo, Texas in 1931 and their wedding was small – just Virginia’s mother, Mayme, Elton’s cousin, Marvin Zipp, and Marvin’s wife, Edna. (When Virginia and Elton would celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1981, the party would be much, much bigger.)
Right after the wedding and a simple wedding dinner, Elton, Virginia, Marvin, and Edna all climbed into a 1930 Chevrolet coupe and drove straight to Monterrey. The night was bitterly cold and the coupe’s interior had room for only two people so the couples took turns sitting in the coupe’s rumble seat, wrapped in blankets beneath the clear night sky. When Virginia talked about the long drive eight decades later, she would remember how black the sky was and how bright the stars.
In Monterrey, everything was new for Virginia – a new husband, a new country, a new language. Even going to the market was overwhelming at first, until Virginia began picking up Spanish. Virginia would later tell her grandchildren that she loved speaking Spanish because it was such a “flowery language” and would laugh when she told them that the first Spanish words she had learned had been for food.
Four children arrived: Elton (in 1933), Carolyn (in 1935), Beba (in 1937) and Jaime (in 1941). Long before there was such a thing as a party planner, Virginia threw a fantastic birthday party – they were the talk of the neighborhood – and her parties became bigger and bigger because Virginia invited every person she knew, no matter their age. Her son, Elton, says that Virginia single-handedly changed Degollado Street, where the Kruegers lived, to a large extended family because Virginia made sure that no one was left out of any gathering.
The Kruegers began attending services at the Union Church in Monterrey, which had no building of its own but leased a space on Saturdays from another church. Virginia would change that. She threw herself into raising the funds for a new church and then, when the new church building opened, she manned a taco table during the celebration – all the taco money would go toward a new church organ.
Virginia delighted in fresh flowers and her face would light up whenever she saw a bouquet. Virginia drew together a strong circle of friends when she founded the Monterrey Garden Club, the first of its kind in Monterrey. For more than 25 years Virginia would keep the Union Church supplied with graceful, gorgeous floral arrangements. Virginia’s daughter, Beba, remembers how every Friday for decades, Virginia, carried the flowers into the church and would arrange them thoughtfully so the church would look welcoming when people came for services. The Union Church would show their gratitude by opening the Virginia Krueger Garden in April of 2005. (If you are in Monterrey, please stop by this garden and know you will be standing in one of Virginia’s favorite places on earth.)
Although she came to feel that Monterrey was her home, Virginia missed her friends and family in Texas and was a faithful correspondent. She said that mailing Christmas cards was her favorite part of the holiday (other than the church services, Christmas parties and Christmas music) and she mailed many, many cards during her life. Throughout her nineties, Virginia would mail out more than 300 Christmas cards every year, and each card held a letter written in her distinctive handwriting telling you all the news. Once you sent a card to Virginia, you would stay forever on her mailing list. Until the very last days of her life, Virginia was still receiving cards and letters from family in Texas and California but also from friends throughout India, China, South America and Europe.
As Virginia’s children grew, she focused on fundraising for charities. She helped the Red Cross with their collections and she was a member of the Cosmopolitan Club, which raised money to provide scholarships to orphans and abandoned children. Virginia also helped bring in funds for the missions of the Union Church and was the person that the church put in charge of carrying the money to the people most in need.
Virginia’s devotion to providing for those less fortunate continued all her life. She was in her mid-seventies when she heard that people from the Union Church were doing a Walkathon to raise money to feed the hungry. She would not be left out of this fundraising event even though it was a seven-mile hike that wound steeply uphill through the San Angel neighborhood of Monterrey. Virginia’s smile did not dim throughout the whole seven miles and she just kept walking until she reached the finish line.
Virginia did not turn down invitations. If she was invited to attend a religious service, Virginia went, no matter which religion, no matter what kind of service. After she turned 100 years old, she got a huge kick out of bingo, and even though she saw the whole proceeding as humorous she still enjoyed every single game. Even while she grew more frail, Virginia’s smile and her enthusiasm never dimmed. Virginia did not complain. Not ever. When a person turns 108 years old, there are aches and pains but Virginia did not want to talk about these. She wanted to know more about what was happening in your life. She was bright, she was cheerful, she was observant and knew what was happening in her family and in the world.
Ask any of her family for Virginia’s favorite word, and “wonderful,” is what they will tell you. “Wonderful” might be used to describe music (Virginia loved classical music, Guy Lombardo and mariachis), or food (any kind of food although Virginia was especially fond of cake). But Virginia used “wonderful” most often to describe people. She found something to like in every person she met.
Virginia joins her beloved husband, Elton Krueger, who passed in 1982, her much loved son-in-law Charles Roffino and her cherished granddaughter Lupita, who both passed in 2004. Virginia is survived by her four children: Elton Krueger (Patricia); Carolyn Roffino; Beba Krueger de Chapa (Augusto); and Jaime Krueger. She also remains dear in the hearts of her 14 grandchildren, her 28 great-grandchildren, and her great-great grandson.
Virginia died on June 14, 2018 at the age of
108. Even while we mourn Virginia’s passing, we (her children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren) are thankful to have known this person who greeted life wholeheartedly every day of her 108 years and to see how Virginia always sought – and found – joy, beauty, and friendship.
Ann Krueger Spivack is #5 of Virginia’s 14 grandchildren.