Virgiline Garaventa

Virgiline "Virgie" (Reiling) Garaventa
September 22, 1923 - February 24, 2021
Virgiline Catherine Reiling was born at home in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 22, 1923 to Otto A. Reiling (1894-1956) and Emily (Anselment) Reiling (1982-1980). She joined siblings Rosviel (Ross) (1919-1999), Otto (1920-2016) and Dolores (1922-20XX) and was followed by Harvey (1924-1996), Therese (Skezzix) (1927-2017), and William (Willie) (1929-2012).
After her family moved to 'the farm', she attended the one-room Coopers Corner Grammar School in Bethel, Anoka County. Wanting to attend high school, she deliberately flunked the eighth-grade competency test, graduating a year later in 1938; she and her sister Dolores were then able to attend St. Francis High School together. Unable to obtain the monthly school bus fee, she only finished the ninth grade. Ever industrious, she moved to Minneapolis to work as a live-in maid, and then as a waitress. In 1942, the sisters went West, settling in San Francisco. During WWII Virgie was an electrician at Moore Dry Dock Company shipyard in Oakland. After the war, she met her future husband, Armando, while waitressing. Virgie and 'Monty' were married at her parish church, St. Agnes, in late 1946. Though expecting to be a housewife, the household income was insufficient for the quality of life she desired for her family, so she returned to waitressing. Though a member of the union since her initiation in November 1945, in the later years she had to 'adjust' her age to counter age-discrimination in the workplace. Food, nutrition, vitamins, exercise, and yoga were important throughout her life; her retirement at the age of 70 was also filled with Senior Center activities, quilting, various fabric projects, knitting, and so on. Armando died in mid-January 2020 at age 94 after a sudden illness. A bad fall shortly thereafter resulted in her February 2020 move to Alma Via of San Francisco. Covid-19 restrictions accompanied by a plague of falls and their complications precipitated her demise at age 97. She is survived by her three children Donna Marie (1947-; Frank Norick), Gloria Stella (1950-; Mark Rulli) and Marco Joseph (1958-).