Virginia Steil, 91, of Oelwein passed away on Wednesday March 26, 2025 at Arlington Place Assisted Living in Oelwein. Visitation will be from 4:00-7:00 PM on Wednesday April 2, 2025 at the Geilenfeld-Buehner Funeral Home in Oelwein. Mass of Christian Burial will begin at 10:30 AM on Thursday April 3, 2025 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Oelwein. Interment will be in Woodlawn Cemetery at Oelwein. Memorials may be directed to the family for a later designation.
Virginia Rose Steil was born in Emmetsburg on October 18, 1933, to parents James and Laura (Hardinger) Manwarren, the tenth out of twelve children.
She attended School at Emmetsburg – St. Ellen’s, where she also received her first communion. She then attended Rodman Grade School and then Emmetsburg School.
On August 25, 1951 Virginia was united in marriage with Donald Steil at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Emmetsburg.Ten children were born to this union.
In 1951, shortly after marriage, Donald and Virginia moved to Iowa City. Donald started school at the U of I and Virginia went to work at the Old Capitol building, typing addresses on envelopes, also working at the General Store which provided supplies to the hospital. From Iowa City they moved to Emmetsburg and then on to West Bend, Estherville, Oelwein and Hazleton, until the tornado in 2008 relocated them to Fairbank. Virginia worked as a CNA at Mercy Hospital in Oelwein, also with Fayette and Buchanan County Public Health. Virginia served on the Hazleton City Council for 18 years and served as Mayor for 4 years.
Virginia shared stories of her life with her children, here are just a few… Her sister, Lucille was always getting her a job and Loretta was always picking Virginia up to help do the laundry on the weekends, one time Virginia didn’t come home after school and spent the time at the library so Loretta had to go home without Virginia and do her own laundry. Virginia also spent her summers in Colorado to help her brother Gene and his wife Bonnie. She remembers the rattle snakes in the outhouse, and how she hated using the outhouse. Virginia learned to drive while in Colorado with the help of her brother Gene. He told her to make a U-turn on the road, which she did, and he told her that she didn’t have to wipe out half of the wheat field just to turn around. One time Virginia and her brother John slid down the new pile of straw from the oats being thrashed and really caught hell from their dad, but they had a great time sliding. Virginia also talked about growing up during the depression days when not everyone could go to town at the same time because people would steal the chickens. One time Virginia was supposed to wash the dishes but decided to put them in the cook stove instead. When her mom came home, she fired up the stove, they had very warm, dirty dishes for supper that night. She shared with the family the memories of having to place cardboard in their shoes to cover the holes to keep the snow, dirt, and water out of them and to keep her feet somewhat dry. She talked of the first “garbage disposals”, which were their chickens and pigs on the farm. When Donald and Virginia were dating, Donald rode a Harley, which drove Virginia’s mother, Laura, nuts because she just knew Donald was going to kill Virginia on that bike. Virginia also believed that you should never eat Chocolate Chips unless they were in cookies.
Virginia is survived by her children: Michael (Linda) Steil, Jeanine (Dennis) Tellin, James (Kris) Steil, Mary (Jim) Scharnhorst, Colleen (Jeff) Frake, John (Karla) Steil, Dennis Steil, Kate (Duane) Taylor; her daughter-in-law Sandy Steil; her 22 grandchildren, 41 great-grandchildren, and 1 great -great grandchild; her sister Joann Nickles; her sister-in-laws: June Manwarren, Virginia Meade and Ellen (Dick) Mueller; her brother-in-law Mike (Esty) Steil.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband Donald in 2020; her sons: Dan and Donald Jr. Steil; her grandchildren: Christopher Steil, Matthew and Michael Steil and William Scharnhorst; her great-grandchildren: Abigail and Hannah Thompson, and Blake Steil; her brothers: Frank (Dode), Gene (Bonnie), Bob (Ella), James, John, and Orville (Nettie) Manwarren; her sisters: Evelyn (John) Moran, Marie (Roy) Stoulil, Lucille (Dayton) Allen and Loretta (Dale) Poland.
Memories of our mom:
Mom knew that I hate to shop, so I do a lot of ordering off Amazon. When her legs no longer wanted to work for her, she asked if I would order her a new pair of legs, because you can get anything from Amazon”. ~Kate
Having coffee with mom while watching the baby robins waiting for mommy to feed them. This was when we lived in Estherville, in the house on the hill, in the sunroom. She started me on coffee at five years of age. ~Mary
I will always remember mom’s laugh when I told her the joke about the elderly man driving down the road and he gets a phone call from his wife. The wife had a voice of utter concern when she asked her husband where he was and he said, driving on Interstate 35, to which the wife responded,- be careful, there is a driver going the wrong way on that Interstate, to which her husband responded,- well hell they are all going the wrong way. ~Jeanine
Virginia was the sole spokesman for the Ginomatic. Even before the Ginsu Knife line came into culinary demand mom was known to “whack a snake” into gourmet bite sizes and shapes. Few people actually know that the “ripple cut, dice, chop, blend, slice and pulverize” were her inventions. ~Pat (James)
I called mom almost every night, sometimes she would talk for awhile and other times I would barely get “I love you” out and she would say “ok got to go”. When she moved to Arlington Place and said “I won’t play Bingo with those people” but ended up being one of the highlights of her week and she won a lot or so she said. ~Colleen (Coke)
I remember that big garden mom had when we lived out on the curve. I often think mom’s reason behind sending us out to weed it, was so she could have some peace of mind for a while and get us kids out of the house. ~John
Virginia could always find a positive note even when things weren’t the best. When all her kids were young and at home and it was cleaning and laundry day her house always had a sparkle and smelled fresh. So blessed to have her in my life. ~Sandy
When I was about five years old, I locked mom out of their apartment above a restaurant, and all she had on was her nightgown/robe, she had to go down the stairs and into the restaurant to get the key to get back into the apartment. Also, when I didn’t what to go someplace, I buried the keys in the sandbox and didn’t tell them where so they didn’t get to go where they wanted to go. Once dad was out on a late night fire call, getting home very early in the morning, he didn’t want to wake anyone so he removed his shoes downstairs and made his way to the bedroom upstairs and sat down on the bed, however mom had re-arranged the furniture that day in the bedroom, so the bed wasn’t where it had been when dad sat down. ~Mike
Mom made the best bread, especially her cinnamon rolls. They weren’t available too long, maybe a day or two, but they were great. ~Dennis
