Vilma Mary Wondra Jiracek was born January 6, 1898 to James Wondra and Mary Kucera Wondra at Wilbur, Nebraska.

She died early Sunday morning, December 20, 1981 at the Creighton Lundberg Memorial Hospital, having been taken there late Friday evening after suffering a mild heart attack. She was 83 years, 11 months, and 14 days of age at the time of her passing.

Having been left motherless at the age of 2, she was eventually to be taken by her eldest sister, Bess (Bozena) to be raised to young adulthood in and around Chicago and New Brighton, Pennsylvania.

Upon graduation from high school in Chicago, Vilma returned to Nebraska to visit her father, a butcher who was living at Petersburg, Nebraska. She stayed on in Nebraska, attending Wayne Normal School (Wayne State College) and took a teaching position at the Pleasant Valley Rural School southwest of Verdigre, Nebraska, where she taught for three years.

It was in this community that she met Edward L. Jiracek and they were united in marriage in the Catholic Church at Petersburg on August 30, 1920.

This this union of Ed and Vilma were born two sons, Edward A. of Lincoln, and Donald of Verdigre, and two daughters, Virginia (Mrs. Lee Barta) and Dorothy (Mrs. Neal Sandoz) of Sioux City, Iowa.

Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by one brother, Carl, of Winner, S.D.; sister Olga Marousek of Lincoln and Spencer, Nebraska, and sister Bess Flaherty of Seattle, Wash., and Boulder, Colorado. Her husband Ed died on July 26, 1971.

Besides her four children, she leaves to mourn five grandsons: Steve, Jim, and John Barta of Lincoln, and David and Don Sandoz of Sioux City, Iowa; four grand-daughters: Theresa Sandoz of Sioux City, Iowa, Lynn Jracek Smith of Denver, CO, Kim Jiracek Jordeth of Aschaffenberg, West Germany, and Jenny Jracek Riley of Herman, Nebraska and one great grandson, Kai Jordeth of Aschaffenburg, W. Germany; spouses of her children and grandchildren; several nieces and nephews, and a host of friends.
...Provided by Rita Sporrer