Virginia Belle Dechant (Rogers) was born July 26, 1932, on a farm northeast of the small town of Lebanon, KS where she grew up. She was a softball pitcher, active in the Methodist Church, in the High School Glee Club and Girl’s Quartette and Trio, and the lead in several school plays in Junior and Senior High. Her friends called her “Ginnie” or “Jinx.” She graduated from Lebanon High School in 1950. Her senior classmates voted her as “most courteous.”
Following high school graduation, Virginia worked at the telephone company as a switchboard operator in the days that all calls went through the operator, and then the power company in Smith Center, KS. She had a small apartment with her best friend Sharon (Rollins) Rorabaugh known as “Squeak.” They were quite the pair. Her high school sweetheart, Earl Dechant, nicknamed “Pedro,” joined the Navy after graduation. Following a long-distance relationship, they were married on March 9, 1953, in the Chapel on the Norfolk Naval Base.
When Earl’s tour of duty was complete, they moved to Phillipsburg, KS to start their new life together. She went to work for the Phillips County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. Virginia loved working with, and helping, farmers with various farm programs for 35 years. She was active in the Methodist, then United Methodist Church in Phillipsburg, singing in the choir and participating in Women’s Club.
Virginia balanced work with a life centered around her family; husband Earl and three boys, David, Stephen, and Thomas. On the run continually, she rarely missed an activity that her boys were involved in, sports or other, and was an avid scorekeeper at all their sporting events. As the boys were growing up, the family regularly took two-week summer vacations, leaving rural Kansas to see the United States from coast to coast and border to border. Along the way, they attended baseball games and took in historic landmarks. She instilled in her boys that they could go wherever they wanted to go and be whatever they wanted to be. As they went off to college, took their first jobs, and started families of their own, they made her proud and she continued to be an important part of their lives through her and Earl’s regular travels and visits.
In retirement, Virginia and Earl became RV’ers in 1992, first on an experimental basis in response to the shock from her boys that her and their dad were committing to sell their house. With the experiment a success, they committed to the RV life full time, even serving as campground hosts at many of their stops. She loved traveling, making new friends, and spending a significant part of the RV years in Texas, Colorado, Iowa, and Florida to continue spending time with her children and to get away from cold Kansas winters. During that time, she enjoyed and became an important part of her son’s families as well. Her commitment to family expanded, spending time with and enjoying the activities of her grandchildren who knew her as “G-ma.”
Following Earl’s passing in 2006, she settled down in Marion, IA where son David lived, with winter trips to Tampa, FL where sons Thomas lived and Stephen had a beach house. Her adventurous life continued with trips to Malaysia and Australia where she learned to treasure the different cultures, the sights and sounds that Stephen introduced her to with his international work assignments.
She loved baseball and the beach in Florida, was an avid walker, and cross stitched as well. She got to start it all over again enjoying and engaging with eleven great grandchildren who lovingly knew her as “Ma.”
She was a “classy” lady known for her patience and compassion. In her later years, she battled and eventually succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease. She passed peacefully with family present the evening of November 13, 2020. Tribute donations to the Alzheimer’s Association are appreciated in lieu of flowers.
Virginia was preceded in death by her husband Earl, her parents Fred and Mayme (Stones) Rogers, her sister Norma (Rogers) Sink, daughter-in-law Judy (Milton) Dechant, and grandson Matthew Dechant.
Virginia is survived by sons David and wife Kathy (Hadley) of Marion, IA, Stephen of Treasure Island, FL, and Thomas of Tampa, FL; grandchildren Layce (Dechant) and husband Scott Fillner of Cedar Rapids, IA, Brooks Dechant and wife Andrea of Marion, IA, Drew Dechant and wife Jennifer of Cedar Rapids, IA, Shanon (Dechant) and husband Jake Lappe of Marion, IA, Kelsey (Dechant) and husband John Russell of Durham, NC, and Jake Dechant of Lakeland, FL; and eleven great grandchildren Jordyn, Emery, and Karson Fillner of Cedar Rapids, IA, Drake and Decker Dechant of Marion, IA, Avery, Chloe, and Owen Dechant of Cedar Rapids, IA, and Kyler, Bailey, and Brantlee Lappe of Marion, IA.
Private family services will be 1:00 p.m. Friday, November 20, 2020 at the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg. The services will be streamed on the Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel Facebook Page. Burial will follow in the Fairview Cemetery, Phillipsburg.
Mrs. Dechant will lie in state from Noon until 9 p.m. Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel, Phillipsburg. The family will receive friends Thursday evening from 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. for visitation.
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer's Association c/o Olliff-Boeve Memorial Chapel.