Virginia Claire Joosepson

Graveside services for Mrs. Virginia Joosepson, 92, will be held Monday, April 27 at 4:00 p.m. in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Cameron, under the direction of Green-Patterson Funeral Home. Mrs. Joosepson passed away Tuesday, April 21, at her home, surrounded by her loving family.

She was born Virginia Claire Humble in Tyler, Texas on August 25 1922, the first born child of Minnie May and Garfield Humble; however, the family shortly grew to five with the addition of two more children, don and Billie Ruth, who were born in Taft, Texas. After living in several locations, the family eventually settled in Temple, Texas, where Virginia attended high school. In school her favorite subject was Latin and she won many Latin tournaments, including the Texas State Latin Tournament. She graduated valedictorian at Temple High School in 1939 at the age of 16, and subsequently attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in Classical languages.

She taught high school for one year in Orange, Texas, but gave that up in June of 1944 to marry William J. Hagerty of South Bend, Indiana, whom she had met while attending UT. In the following three years she gave birth to 3 children, Pat, Tim and Mike. In 1949, the small family relocated to Colorado where she gave birth to an additional 8 children, Bill, Mary, Charlie, Chris, Terry, Karen, Elizabeth and Virginia; however, Charlie died in infancy. In 1960 her husband Bill passed away and she was left a widow at the age of 37 with 10 children to raise and support. With the help of her relatives she moved the family to Pasadena, Texas where she spent the remaining years of her life. She accepted a teaching position at Deer Park High School where she taught Latin, French, and English from 1962 until 1985. She had an extremely strong constitution and succeeded marvelously in raising and supporting her ten children, but if she was able to keep her sanity during this tremendous struggle please don't blame any of them. In 1967 she married Aser Joosepson, but four years later she was unfortunately widowed again. After retiring from teaching and with all of her children grown, she enjoyed many years volunteering to manage the book store at St. Pius V Catholic church. During her retirement years she was blessed to be involved in the lives of all her grand and great-grandchildren and always looked forward to the family holiday get-togethers.

She is survived by her ten children, twenty-five grandchildren, nineteen great-grandchildren, her baby sister Billie Ruth, and four nephews.

There will be a viewing at 2:00 p.m. Sunday April 26 at Grand View Funeral Home, 8501 Spencer Highway, Pasadena, Texas. there will be a memorial Mass at 10:30 a.m. Monday April 27, 2015 at St. Pius V. Catholic Church, 824 South Main Street, Pasadena, Texas.