Virgil’s Story

This is Virgil’s story with most information provided by his wife Karen. Family found it after she died on May 9^th, 2015.

Virgil Francis Bechen was born to Rose and Vincent Bechen on December 12, 1936. His birth occurred in a house on the corner of 3^rd and Church Street, which was the hospital. He joined a sister Marlys and a brother Vincent (Junior). The family lived on a farm place just to the north of the present farm until Virgil was one-year old. They then moved to the farm that had been owned by George Bell in the spring of 1937, which was located just at the top of the shore of Lake Andes. It was a beautiful, peaceful place to live.

Virgil’s mom Rose always worked hard alongside his Dad with Grandma Nellie O’Rourke Bechen watching young Virgil. One day when Virgil was four years old, his mom and dad were out picking corn. Grandma Nellie was doing laundry in the basement with Virgil and a kerosene lantern got tipped over and he was severely burned. Grandma put him in the rain barrel and then put honey or butter all over the burn.

He was taken to the Wagner Hospital and put under the care of Dr. Dugan and a nurse Mrs. Boomer. They are credited with saving young Virgil’s life. (His Aunt Ida once remarked that they didn’t think little Virgie would make it because he was burned so badly on the right side.) It took nine long months where staff used Clorox baths to debride his burned skin and they covered it with Vaseline. He had multiple skin grafts. While he was in the hospital, Pearl Harbor was bombed and World War II was declared. Virgil once stated he remembered hearing the announcement over the radio from his hospital bed.

As was common to many families in those days, Virgil’s parents did not have a lot of money. His Dad Vincent always made wooden toys for him and his brother for Christmas. He ate a lot of syrup sandwiches because they couldn’t afford anything else.

For the most part, Virgil wandered the farm barefooted in the summer and watched the turkey hens to find their eggs. He then helped put the eggs under the chicken hens to hatch. The turkeys had to be put into the shed if it rained because they would put their heads up into the rain and it was feared they would drown themselves. Virgil and his brother always had chores to do before school, and they had to come right home after school for more chores.

As a result of his health issues, Virgil started school when he was 7 years old in a country school West Howard #1, just down the road from the farm. He then went to town school in the second grade because the country school closed due to a lack of pupils. The country school reopened the next year with more students because people were moving into the area in preparation for the building of the Ft. Randall Dam near Pickstown. Some of his teachers were Mrs. Roman, Mrs. Yukon, Mrs. Savisen, Mrs. Wheeler, and Miss Kisely. When Virgil was a freshman in high school in Lake Andes, he was accidently poked in the side where he had skin grafting from his burns with a lead pencil. The lead caused an infection and he had to have some of the skin grafting done again at the Yankton Hospital. He missed another year of school.

After graduating from Lake Andes High school in 1956, Virgil went to work at the Fort Randall Dam in Pickstown for a time. He then worked at a gas station owned by his friend Jim Haney’s dad in Pickstown. Virgil’s dad Vincent died in 1960 of a heart attack with complications from his diabetes. He returned to the farm to work with his brother Vincent, forming the Bechen Brothers partnership.

Soon after in 1961, Virgil’s life was about to change. He decided to attend a district basketball game. According to Karen, Wagner and Ravinia school kids were really close, but there was a huge rivalry between them and the kids from Lake Andes. However, the district basketball tournament was always held in Lake Andes and people had to get there early to stand in line waiting for the doors to open. It just happened that a young lady named Karen Kathleen Winckler was a saxophone player and she was lucky enough to be chosen for the pep band that was composed of kids from each school. (She said she always got chosen to play.) Anyway, it just so happened that the girl sitting next to Karen was dating Virgil at the time, and that is when they met. (Karen did mention that Lake Andes always had a good basketball team and Wagner never beat them until the next year after she graduated.)

As a result of this chance meeting, Karen and Virgil started dating. Karen’s sister Marlys stated that she remembered Virgil providing security at the Lake Andes Drive-In. So Karen started hanging out at the movies. One night, Karen agreed to take Marlys along to a movie while Virgil was working. He made sure they had popcorn and pop.

Finally as the romance turned serious, Virgil asked Karen to be his wife. They were married on January 27, 1962 at St. John’s Catholic Church in Wagner, SD with Father Hyland officiating. Vincent and Elaine Bechen and Ron and Joann Sejnoha were the attendants. Janice Bechen was the flower girl and Mark Hakl was the ring bearer. One of Karen’s personal attendants was now Darlene Dvorak. As Karen told the story, it was a beautiful January day where no coats were necessary. The following four weekends in February, there were major blizzards. When the snow melted in the spring, Lake Andes was filled after being almost dry.

As a result to the flooded lake, Karen, who was teaching in Avon and renting a room during the week, had a very difficult time getting home on the weekends. The first year of their marriage, Karen and Virgil shared his mother Rose’s house on the farm. In the spring of 1963, they bought a 10’x50’ trailer house for $1.000. It was placed on the north side of his mother’s house. The trailer only had two very small bedrooms where you had to travel through the first to get to the second. It finally came to a time where Karen and Virgil had five children (Jeannette – 11/20/1962, Jackie – 01/18/1964, Janelle – 07/28/1965, Brad – 03/04/1972 and Jolynn – 06/24/1973). With a sixth child on the way they decided it was time for a change. A decision was made to trade houses with Rose and a 26’x60’ addition was built onto her house to make it a house with four bedrooms and a garage. They also finished the basement. Rose moved to the trailer and Virgil’s family moved into Grandma Rose’s house on April 6^th, 1975 with baby James born on May 9^th, 1975. A seventh child, Ron, joined the family on June 19^th, 1980.

Luckily, the Bechen family spent lots of good times visiting their friends, the Eugene Payer and the Mike Kirwan families. (Since the Payers had five kids and the Kirwans had six kids, what else could they do?) Also, brother and sister-in-law Vincent and Elaine and family lived on the same farm with their seven girls, which made a total of fourteen kids on the farm. There was always something to do.

Virgil loved to hunt and fish when he had a little time. Karen was sometimes lucky or persuasive enough to convince him to go on a family vacation, which included one trip to Yellowstone, Salt Lake City and Denver, a couple of trips to the Black Hills, one to the Ozarks. They often went to visit his sister Marlys and her husband Rich and their seven children near Fairfield, Iowa and dear cousin Dean and wife Maryann Bechen near Schleswig, IA. Once their daughter moved out to Seattle, Washington area, they made a few visits out there, but Virgil was most content at home.

Eventually, Junior retired from farming in 1995 and Virgil farmed with Brad for a few years before also retiring himself. In 2009, Karen and Virgil moved to the other side of Lake Andes, where they enjoyed a few happy years until Karen passed away on May 9^th, 2015. Virgil then moved to a house in Wagner where his daughter Jeannette lived with him after taking a job locally. He entered the Wagner Good Samaritan Center December 22, 2015, just a few days after his 80^th birthday. His health steadily declined until his death on April 2^nd, 2020.