- Date Of Birth: June 12, 1926
- Date Of Death: April 15, 2014
- State: Illinois
Virginia Mae Breig, nee Keller, 87, of Fairview Heights, IL, went to eternity on Tuesday, April 15, 2014 from her home. She was born in East St. Louis, IL on June 12, 1926, fifth child (of five daughters) of Heinrich and Celeste Keller, nee Howlett. As a young girl, she used to ride her bike every day with her friend Vivian, her favorite thing to do, along with hopscotch and jump rope.
Her favorite subjects were social studies, history, and biographies. Her four sisters, Dorothy, Helen, Louise and Ruth, were all her mentors along with all her friends at school. She graduated from East St Louis High School in 1945, where she excelled in vocal and choral music. She and her sisters worked at different jobs to support the family during such hard economic times. As her father was not well after the war and losing their own home, they worked very hard helping their mother raise the family without a major income source. She also fondly recalls when her sister, Dorothy, and her son, Richard, lived at home with the family. She attended prom with future husband, who proposed just prior to her graduation.
After she graduated high school, she worked for Federal Barge Company and Darcy Advertising as an Administrative Assistant. Later she married Donald Robert Breig on November 8, 1947. She was an outstanding homemaker, bearing nine children (5 girls and 4 boys), all of whom attended college, becoming independent, successful adults in their own rite. Living in West St Louis County for 25 years, the family moved five times after 1978 (Mason, OH; Lyndhurst, OH; Naperville, IL; Champaign, IL; and back to St Louis, MO). Her ever-present and growing skills of sewing and baking became her working hobbies, especially the cookie baking at holidays. She loved to be involved with her kids as they progressed through school, as a room mother and participant in the Parent-Teacher Association.
In her spare time, Virginia loved to listen to recorded and live music, especially Josh Groban (You Lift Me Up) and Andre Rieu. She also loved being with her children and grandchildren, seeing them grow, mature, and participate in extracurricular activities, especially her sons and grandchildren playing sports. She was the subject matter for a booklet (The Life of Virginia Mae Breig) that one of her grandchildren (Alyssa Marie Gaddis) wrote about her. She is preceded in death by her parents and daughter, Susan Ann Brockmann. Virginia is survived by her husband, Donald Robert Breig; eight of her nine children, Gary Robert Breig, Pamela Jean Shepard, Robert David Breig, David Michael Breig, Jane Marie Mausser, Nancy Susan Gaddis, Marie Ann Schwartz, and Michael Donald Breig; sixteen grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Memorials may be made to Heartland Hospice of Illinois.
