Funeral services for Virginia Higgins will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Theodore Catholic Church in Albert Lea. The Rev. Russell Scepaniak and Deacon Mike Ellis will officiate. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at Bonnerup Funeral Service and again one hour prior to the service at church. Interment will be in St. Theodore Catholic Cemetery.

Virginia May (Hagen) Higgins was born Aug. 2, 1923 in Albert Lea and died at 91 Tuesday, July 7, 2015. She was the daughter of Ole J. Hagen and Eliza (Hanson) Hagen. She died in time to join her beloved husband, Bernie, to celebrate their 76th wedding anniversary in heaven.

Virginia was a lifelong resident of Albert Lea. She attended Ramsey School and Central High School through the ninth grade. She became a member of St. Theodore’s Church when she married her childhood sweetheart on July 7, 1939.

For many years she was an active member of Catholic Church Women, worked for Naeve Hospital Auxiliary at the hospital lunch counter, and was also on the board and an active member of Meals on the Go. She served hot lunch at St. Theodore’s school on Fridays. She worked as a housekeeper at St. Theodore’s rectory for 30 years and was a second mom to the priests who lived there. She received the Bishop’s Medal for her many years of meritorious work.

She loved her family and friends and loved baking  — including Christmas cookies of many kinds and caramel and cinnamon rolls — cooking, flowers, birds, keeping her home beautiful and welcoming new people to the neighborhood. No matter what adversity she faced in life, when she was asked how she was, she would respond “just fine.”

She is survived by daughters Patricia Stern of Rochester and Bonnie Arneson of Canton, Georgia; son, Stephen (Lynn) Higgins, of Loretto; daughters Cathy Legried of Albert Lea, Julie (Rex) Mhiripiri of Lakeville and Colleen Higgins of Rotterdam, the Netherlands; son, Greg (Sara) Higgins, of Owatonna; 29 grandchildren; 52 great-grandchildren; 12 great-great-grandchildren; and sister-in-law, Maxine Higgins, of Austin.

Besides her husband, Bernard, who preceded her in death only one month ago; she was preceded in death by 12 sisters and brothers; daughters Debbie Higgins and Diana Ningen; sons-in-law Vern Stern, Gary Arneson, Roger Ningen and Gary Legried; granddaughter, Beth Stern; grandson-in-law, Bryan Kahl; and great-grandson, Jason Rademacher.