Velma L. Boger

Velma Louise was born August 29th, 1926 in Holyoke, Colorado. She was the youngest of Naomi and Arthur Hohstadt’s three children. She and her brother Kenneth and sister Sybil grew up on the plains of Colorado, first in Holyoke and then later in Pritchett. They all pitched in to help the family businesses succeed. When her parents owned a drug store, Velma helped behind the soda fountain and when they ran a dairy farm, it was Velma’s job to deliver the bottles of milk to the store in town. To help her she had a pony named Pee Wee that her parents had purchased from the circus. Velma was the only one that could ride Pee Wee, a fact that aggravated her brother and his friends but delighted her. After she delivered the milk to the store, Velma and Pee Wee were supposed to return home with the empty bottles. On occasion, Velma would chat with the store owner and take longer than Pee Wee thought was necessary. Pee Wee would untie himself and head for home without Velma, always walking just far enough ahead that she couldn’t catch up and would have to walk all the way home with the empty bottles.

Velma often spoke of the hardships of living during the depression and dust bowl years. Her father and mother were always able to make ends meet one way or another. For a time, Arthur sold men’s suits door-to-door and when he no longer needed the samples of wool suit fabric, Naomi made a quilt that Velma said was so heavy, once she got under it to go to sleep at night, she could barely move. But it really kept her warm.

Not too long ago a book titled The Worst Hard Time came out about the dust storms that plagued Eastern Colorado during those years. Velma bought all of her children a copy of the book so they could read about what it was like for her growing up. She always hated the wind because it reminded her of how it would blow sand around town when she was young and it would sting her legs while she would walk to school. To try to avoid the stinging sand she would run a little way and then as the next gust would come up, she would crouch down with her skirt wrapped around her legs until the gust passed, then she would run again until the next gust came along.

In the book about the dust storms the author wrote about it being a treat to eat chicken on Sundays. That part of the story reminded Velma of how her family would eat rabbit on Sundays since Velma’s mother put out poison to kill the swarms of locusts that would destroy their crops. Their chickens would eat the dead locusts, so her mother would not let them eat the chickens for fear they would be poisoned.

Living in a small town provided Velma with the opportunity to make friends that have stayed with her for life. In high school, she made good grades and played basketball. Due to the Second World War, many of her classmates had enlisted to fight so her graduating class in 1944 only contained 12 students. Velma has managed to stay in touch with most of them for the past 66 years.

Velma worked for a living her entire life, whether it was helping her family or later to support her children. One of her favorite jobs was during the summer after she graduated high school. She left Colorado and went to visit a friend in Idaho. While she was there she would work all day picking cherries in an orchard. She was always afraid the farmer was going to fire her though, once he figured out that she was eating half his profits.

While married to her first husband, Ralph Lagrimanta, Velma had four children, Greg, Pam, Mike and Dawn. In the late 1950’s despite being a single woman with a family, she was able to secure a mortgage and buy a house in Denver where she could live with her mother and raise her children. The house is important to the story of her life because it was the hub of many family get-togethers which Velma hosted. At Thanksgiving it was a turkey dinner with all the fixin’s, for New Years, spaghetti, meatballs and garlic bread. And Easter was always a ham and sometimes home made ice cream which all the kids would take turns churning in the old wooden ice-cream freezer. On Sundays, whoever was around was always asked to stay for dinner, and relatives that would come to Denver from out of town always had a place to sleep. Velma enjoyed entertaining and often had friends over for club meetings. When Pam got married, where else would the reception be but at their home? And when Velma remarried in 1973, she said her vows in front of the big brick fireplace.

Velma had been dating a family friend, Duward Bradley “Jack” Boger for several years and when they married on August 1st it was the beginning of the rest of their lives. With their marriage, their family grew. Jack had three grown sons, Wade, Doug and Eddie and as Velma and Jack’s children got older they married and had children of their own.

After they were married, Jack and Velma started traveling as much as their work schedules would allow. They joined the “Ports-of-Call” travel club and visited Mexico and several Central American countries. They bought a camper van and took road trips, often times to Tennessee and Alabama to visit Jack’s family. Velma quit working for Sears and began selling real estate full time which allowed her more time to care for her aging mother and to travel. They gave up the big “old” house in favor if a townhome with a lake view, little maintenance and no yard work. It was here that the grandkids loved to visit so they could go across the street to see the farm that had llamas, goats and a donkey. Velma always kept carrots on hand so the grandkids could feed them to the animals. Velma and Jack invested in an apartment building which provided a little extra income and with the renters moving in and out a steady stream of things on a “to do” list. They steadily traded up their RV’s so they could visit more places across the country until Jacks failing health forced them to stop traveling. Velma always said it didn’t matter how far they had gone, or how long they had been gone for, she always felt like she was home as soon as they crossed over the Colorado state line and she saw “her” Colorado blue skies.

In 2004 when Duward Bradley died, Velma was heartbroken. She adopted a Chihuahua puppy that she named Waggles and she spoiled him rotten. He was her constant companion. In 2007, the stairs in the townhome got to be too much for her and Velma moved to a ranch house in Castle Rock, just a few doors down the street from her youngest daughter.

Velma lived a full and interesting life. In her lifetime she has seen the advent of atomic power, advances in communication including everything from color television to cell phones to the internet, men walking in space and on the moon, the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, and the eradication of many diseases including Polio. Those that have known her have said she was always kind, generous and caring. They also said she was feisty, stubborn, independent and strong willed. All are qualities that stayed with her to the end. She passed away at the age of 83 on March 22nd, 2010, a beautiful sunny day with clear blue Colorado skies.

Velma is survived by her children, Gregory Lagrimanta and his wife, Anne; Douglas Boger; Pamela Hahn and her husband, Larry; Michael Lagrimanta; Dawn Logan and her husband, Hans; and her eleven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. In addition, she will be missed by numerous nieces, nephews and friends.