Community comes together for Virginia Gnat

Dozens of family members joined together to honor late columnist Virginia Gnat, whose name was affixed to the Twin Lakes Outstanding Citizen flagpole at Central Park Monday. (Earlene Frederick/The Report).
Dozens of family members joined together to honor late columnist Virginia Gnat, whose name was affixed to the Twin Lakes Outstanding Citizen flagpole at Central Park Monday. (Earlene Frederick/The Report).

Late Twin Lakes/Westosha Report columnist honored in ceremony

By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer

Love and dedication were two of several qualities that Virginia Gnat exhibited, which earned her a spot Monday on the Outstanding Citizen flagpole at Central Park in Twin Lakes, according to friends and family members.

Along with her family and friends, elected officials, including Trustee Tom Connolly, were on hand to commemorate the honor.

Connolly always remembered her appearances at Village Board meetings, where Gnat expressed excitement over the Twin Lakes Senior Club, an organization she founded in 2006.

“She provided a lot of trips, different activities for the seniors, that was her main thing and she cared about all of them,” Connolly said. “I have been on the board since 1997 on, and off, she has been there every year, telling us about the seniors and what they need and what they are going to do.”

Gnat, the late Twin Lakes/Westosha Report seniors columnist, penned 672 “Young at Heart” columns geared towards helping more than 200 members of the Twin Lakes Senior Club before her passing Feb. 15 at 85.

Betty Loranger, 82, a member of the Senior Club since 2004, recalled how proud Gnat was of her family consisting of three adult children, six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

“Her family was so important to her, and (she) was so proud of every one of her kids, grandkids and great grandkids,” Loranger stated. “We may not know which is which, but we know that her grandkids are around.”

One of her grandchildren, Chris Nelson, a Wilmot Union High School graduate and current quarterback at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, was surprised when members of her Senior Club approached him at her funeral.

“I thought it was pretty cool, even at her funeral, some people I never even knew before, know just as much about me as my whole family,” Nelson said.

Gnat, who spent her last years listening to Nelson’s games on the radio, had her dream of seeing him play in person at Whitewater’s Perkins Stadium for her 85th birthday.

The first-hand experience was enough for Gnat to fondly recall the moment in one of her columns.
For Nelson, it did not come as a surprise. He said she always exhibited a passion for the family.

“It just goes to show how much she liked to talk about us, and it goes to show how proud of her family she was,” Nelson stated.

Cheryl Nelson, Chris’ mother and daughter of Virginia, stated Gnat not only loved her family and the senior community but the village as a whole.

Gnat’s love of the community prompted her move to Twin Lakes from Chicago in 1992 along with her husband, Lawrence, who died in 2006.

“She loved Twin Lakes and wanted to do everything she could for Twin Lakes,” Cheryl Nelson stated.
With the passing of her husband in 2006, she opted to serve the community, establishing the Senior Club, and later became the columnist for the Twin Lakes/Westosha Report.

As she battled cancer for 22 years, Gnat still demonstrated the passion to help coordinate trips and community events, engaging the senior community.

“She worked really hard to get on that plaque and she was very proud of what she did for the Senior Club, and I am very proud of what she did,” said her son Larry, who owns Touch of Class, just feet from the flagpole bearing her name. The flagpole is obviously a customized and shortened cut flagpole base, it still underwent the same flagpole installation as a normal one would, only it’s on a raised monument in remembrance.

Jeralyn agreed with her brother, adding that the Senior Club was her second family.

“The seniors were her second family and they loved her as much as she loved them. She did it for them,” Jeralyn stated.

Loranger felt Gnat’s love since her arrival to Twin Lakes eight years earlier, and will always remember the moments she had.

“She was one of the most caring people that I have ever had the privilege of knowing,” Loranger said. “She has done so much for the seniors in making sure we were going out and we were active.”

The honor did not come as a surprise for Chris Nelson, who remembered his grandmother talking about her Senior Club as he was growing up.

“She is definitely deserving of this award,” Chris Nelson said. “I know she has done a lot for the seniors in the community and a lot of us saw it coming.”


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