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Buffalo Grove mourns one of its original residents

Life stories

Virginia Weidner Raupp ~ 1923-2012

By Eileen O. Daday

Daily Herald correspondent

Virginia Weidner Mueller Raupp didn’t have to look far for her family tree. One walk through the historic St. Mary Cemetery, adjacent to St. Mary Church in Buffalo Grove, provided her with all of her research.

Raupp passed away on Dec. 2, at the age of 89.

She was the granddaughter of one of the first families in Buffalo, Pancratz and Mary Weidner, who came to the U.S. from Germany in 1851.

As the youngest and last survivor of their 10 children — her parents were Theodore and Anna Weidner — Raupp grew up on a 150-acre dairy farm, whose land now stretches from Cooper Middle School to Weidner Park in Buffalo Grove.

Its chickens drew families from throughout the area to their farm for eggs, family members recall.

“She grew up doing farm chores, from cooking and cleaning to taking food out to the men in the fields,” says her niece, Rosemary Weidner Lundemo of Lake Zurich. “She helped with the cows and collecting the eggs from the chickens.

“Grandpa always butchered the chickens in the garage,” Lundemo adds, “so Aunt Ginny would have helped with the butchering and defeathering too.”

Like the rest of the Weidners, Raupp attended St. Mary Church and walked to the school. She married Frank Mueller in 1946 after he returned from World War II and her father butchered a cow for the wedding reception, which was held in the church hall.

The couple raised their three children in Buffalo Grove, but in the 1960s Mueller was struck by a severe case of multiple sclerosis, which left him wheelchair bound.

Raupp went to work as a waitress at Hobson House in Long Grove, where she worked full time to help support the family. Over her 30 years there, she became a familiar face to many of its loyal customers.

As a result of her difficult situation, family members say Raupp and a friend took the train into Chicago for a taping of the “Queen for a Day” show, which had come to the Uptown Theater for a visit and was featuring Chicago area women as contestants.

“At the end of the day, her name was announced,” says her son-in-law, Lou Najfus. “She was Queen for a Day.”

Among her prizes was enough cash to build a ramp to give her home access to her husband’s wheelchair. She also won a freezer full of meat, one year’s worth of cola and some costume jewelry, Najfus adds.

“At the time, it was like winning the lottery,” he added.

Raupp’s husband passed away in the early 1970s. Ten years later, she married another widower, whom she had known growing up in rural Buffalo Grove: Roman Raupp.

The couple was married for nearly 15 years, and during that time they enjoyed polka and ballroom dancing together, her daughter, Beverly Najfus says.

When Roman Raupp died in 1997, he was the last grandson of another original Buffalo Grove founding families, the Raupps.

“It’s always sad when someone with a link to local history dies,” says Debbie Fandrei, coordinator of the Raupp Museum in Buffalo Grove.

“These were people who witnessed Buffalo Grove’s transition from a small farm town into a bustling suburb, and they are becoming more rare each day.”

Services have been held.

Theodore and Anna Weidner, parents of Virginia Weidner Mueller Raupp. Courtesy of the Raupp Museum of Buffalo Grove

‘Mrs. Mueller is Queen For A Day’

From the May 2, 1963 Herald:

“Mrs. Frank Mueller of Buffalo Grove was recently chosen a “Queen for a Day” on the Jack Bailey television show. Like most every other woman in the audience for the TV show at the Uptown Theater

in Chicago, Mrs. Mueller filled out a card stating what she would best wish to come true if she could.

Her wish would be for a ramp descending the front stairway of her home for her husband’s wheelchair, she wrote.

This simple wish is to be fulfilled by the show’s sponsors — and her husband, a victim of multiple sclerosis, is also to receive a custom-built greenhouse, one he can tend from his wheelchair.

And Mrs. Mueller is being deluged with presents for her “royal” reign. She is receiving a wristwatch, freezer, TV set, furniture for a den, sewing machine, children’s Coke bar and a supply of Coke, six pairs of shoes, a year’s supply of nylons, a $250 gift certificate from a grocery chain, World Book Encyclopedia set and Childcraft books, three sets of jewelry, and clothes of all sorts.

The Muellers, with their three children, live on Buffalo Grove Road just north of St. Mary Catholic Church.”

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