Virginia Pauline Archambeau

TOLUCA-Virginia Pauline Archambeau (Polo), 97, a long-time resident of Toluca, Illinois, and a parishioner of St. Ann Catholic Church, passed away peacefully on December 18, 2021, at Heritage Health in Minonk.

Her graveside service will be at 2:00 PM on Thursday December 23, 2021, at Clayton Township Cemetery in Benson with Franciscan Friars officiating. Calvert-Johnson & Froelich Memorial Home in Toluca have been entrusted with arrangements.

Virginia was born January 9, 1924, to Carmelo and Emma (Ceretto) Polo at their home in Toluca. She attended school in Toluca and graduated from Toluca High School in 1941. After graduation she went to work for the Toluca Motor Co. as a bookkeeper and cashier. She married William J. Archambeau on January 4, 1947, at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Toluca and the couple moved to Chicago, IL where her husband worked for Mietle Printing Co. as a machinist. During that time, Virginia worked at St. Bernard's Hospital as a record keeper. After their first daughter was born in 1950, they moved to New Lenox, IL where they lived for over 30 Years and raised their two daughters.

While living in New Lennox, Virginia was a homemaker, an active member of St. Jude Catholic Church, and a scout leader. In the early 1970s she attended Joliet Junior College and studied art, gourmet cooking, and golf, while obtaining a degree in Library Media. She went on to work for the Silco company in Florence, Kentucky and Brea, California.

In the early 1980s Virginia returned to Toluca to be closer to her aging mother and her three sisters who lived in nearby communities. During this time, she continued her education in nursing studies at Illinois Valley Community College while working part-time as a nurse aid for Monte Casino in Toluca.

Virginia was an avid traveler all her life. Some of the most memorable included a trip to Italy to visit the birthplace of her mother and father, the Welk Champagne Theatre in Branson, Missouri where she personally met the Lennon sisters, Jo Ann Castle and others in the Welk family; and a visit to California where actor comedian Red Skelton singled her out of the crowd and drew a clown portrait for her. Virginia enjoyed gardening and making raspberry jam with the raspberries from her garden. During one of her visits to Maryland to visit family, she was encouraged to enter her jam in the Montgomery County Fair and to her surprise received a blue ribbon.

Virginia was preceded in death by her parents, her husband William (a WWII veteran), her brother August, and sisters Rose Nadler (Wenona), and Anna Mae Sinclair (Bloomington). She is survived by her daughters Linda Kilroy (Silver Spring, MD), and Carol (Harry) German, of Ottawa, IL. She is also survived by a sister, Marie Koehler, of Benson, and several nieces and nephews.