- Date Of Birth: January 24, 1917
- Date Of Death: April 19, 2014
- State: Illinois
Emma Benson, 97, of rural Jacksonville, died Saturday, April 19, 2014, at Heritage Health in Jacksonville.
Her husband Horace “Ben” Benson preceded her in death in 2001.
She was born in Alexander, the daughter of Joseph and Elsie Bender Bergschneider. She was preceded in death by her sister, Dominican Sister Mary Gretchen Bergschneider; and four brothers, Ernest, Joseph A. (surviving wife Maymie of Jacksonville), Verne (surviving wife Roberta Lindell and her husband Vernon of Jacksonville), and Robert E. (surviving wife Jane of Alexander). She is also survived by a number of nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews.
She attended Alexander Grade School, Routt High School where she was valedictorian, MacMurray College, and the University of Illinois, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree. She taught for eleven years at the high schools in Wolf Lake and Mascoutah, Illinois School for the Blind in Jacksonville, and Sacred Heart Academy in Springfield. She also worked at Olin Industries in Alton for four years, then at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, for seventeen years. After that, she returned to Illinois to be near her family. Mrs. Benson enjoyed golf, bridge, needlework, playing the piano, and singing in several choruses and choirs entertaining family and friends. She was a member of the Church of Our Saviour, Catholic Daughters of the Americas, The Altar and Rosary Society, and the Passavant Area Hospital Auxiliary.
