Virginia Louise Sass, (nee Wheeler), passed away peacefully at the age of 106 on Friday, March 27, 2026. She was born in Joliet on July 21, 1919, to the late Fred and Verda (nee Peterson) Wheeler. Virginia
was raised by her grandparents, George and Josephine Peterson, and was a lifetime area resident.
A graduate of Joliet Township High School with the Class of 1937, she was a Reunion Committee Member and a member of the United Methodist Church in New Lenox.
Virginia was a member of the Will County Farm Bureau, the Will-South Cook Soil and Water Conservation District, the New Lenox Historical Society, the Will County 4-H Foundation and the Will County Prime Timers.
She was also a 50 years member of the Maple Street Arbor of Gleaners, past President of the New Lenox Unit of the American Cancer Society, and a volunteer at Silver Cross Hospital since 1989. She was a member of the Senior Bowling League at Town and Country Lanes, member of the Joliet Area Historical Museum, and was “Fraternalist of the Year” for the Illinois Fraternal Congress in 1994.
Virginia is survived by her daughters, Dr. Verda (Raymond) Hicks and Cheryl (LaVerne) Herzmann; grandchildren, Karla Martinez, Karin (Josh) Evans, Dora (Carlo) Panlilio, Henry Hunter, Stuart (Jackie) Hunter, and Winston (Megan) Hunter; great-grandchildren, Trevor and Thomas Martinez, Theodore and Lucas Panlilio, and Wesley, Maeve, and Sylas Hunter; sister-in-law, Betty Sass; and several nieces and nephews.
She is preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, Loren L. Sass (1988); her parents; her grandparents; sisters, June (Glenn) Kibling and Mercedes Schook; and brothers-in-law, Daniel Sass and Charles Sass.
Visitation for Virginia Louise Sass was held on Tuesday, March 31, at the Fred C. Dames Funeral Home, 3200 Black Road, Joliet, followed by a funeral service at noon. Entombment followed at Woodlawn Memorial Park.
Memorials may be made in Virginia’s name to the The United Methodist Church, 339 W. Haven Ave., New Lenox, IL 60451, or Lightways Hospice, 250 Water Stone Circle, Joliet, IL 60431.
For more information, please call 815-741-5500, or visit her Memorial Tribute at www.fredcdames.com, where you can share a favorite memory or leave an online condolence.

Virginia Sass shared this framed front page of Farmers Weekly Review from 1923 over coffee and a piece of homemade pie at her Joliet residence. She wanted us to have this, which is now hanging in the newspaper’s office at the Will County Farm Bureau.

Mrs. Sass kept the framed front page for many years because of this photo in the 1923 edition of her as a 4-year-old contestant in our subscription drive.