By Mary Nehring, Staff Writer
Earlier this week, I enjoyed a visit with Virgil and Kristi (Gilyard) Kelly at Food Pride in Becker.
I have known Virgil and his family my entire life. Virgil and his wife, Muriel, and their family attended church with us at South Santiago Lutheran Church. We enjoyed playing church softball and Luther League (outdated term for youth group).
We have a special relationship with Virgil and his family. We are double cousins. Two (Granerud) sisters married two Gilyard brothers after they came as immigrants from Norway.
John Gilyard (Virgil’s grandfather) and Austen Gilyard (John’s brother - who was my mom’s grandpa) married sisters Olivia Granerud and Alma Granerud, making my mother double cousins with Virgil.
Virgil’s brother Austen was a good friend to our grandpa Carl Erickson. They would enjoy having coffee and visiting.
Two of my sisters and I worked for Virgil as cashiers at the Santiago gas station (Country Store) for many years in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. My dad also worked for Virgil in the 1950’s deliver fuel oil for several years. Many people do not realize how comical Virgil is. I always enjoyed his sense of humor!
It was fun to visit with Virgil about his childhood. and old baseball stories.
Virgil was born to Ervin and Ellen Gilyard. He was raised on a farm just west of Santiago on Co. Rd. 3 and still lives there, near his brother Lee (Hans). Virgil recalls getting electricity on their farm in 1938, which made milking cows easier. He told me he was 10 years old, in 1938, when his mother, Ellen died after a gall bladder surgery. His father, Ervin, was left with five young sons to raise.
“Getting us kids to Sunday School at South Santiago Lutheran Church every week was a high priority for our dad”, Virgil said.
Virgil married Muriel Sorenson in 1951. (They both graduated from Becker High School in 1946). They were blessed with four children: Kristi, John, Julie and Joel.
He farmed full-time in Santiago township after high school, raising cows and pigs. He farmed until May 1, which is when he formed a partnership with Glenn Anderson and Virgil has been in Becker ever since (58 years).
Virgil enjoyed playing baseball from the age of 17-24 at the Santiago ballpark in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. In 1951, Santiago’s baseball team went to the state championship. Virgil pitched and played firstbase.
Virgil reminisced what a superior athlete and ballplayer Jack Storlie was such - almost major league material.
My siblings and I played softball on the same ballfield and such good memories there.
Although he also enjoyed playing basketball, getting to Becker High School for practice proved challenging.
The Gilyards have always been savvy businessmen. They are ambitious and unafraid to take risks. Virgil’s uncle, Abner Gilyard, owned the Ford dealership in Santiago and another uncle, Clifford Gilyard, owned a car dealership in Foley.
I chuckled as Virgil told me that he started driving (on the road) at the age of seven! It wasn’t easy to purchase a new vehicle during the Depression, but Virgil's dad purchased a new pickup from his uncle Clifford Gilyard in Foley in 1935. “My dad didn’t really care to drive, so I started driving!”
After high school, Virgil attended St. Cloud college, majoring in business. After four years at St. Cloud State College, he graduated in 1950, earning a BA in general business administration. After college, Virgil was in the U.S. Army for two years (1953 and 1954), stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX, where he was a part of the first guided missile division in U.S. history.
Virgil is humble about his many business ventures and accomplishments, but he has been a huge part of the Becker and Santiago landscape for the past nine decades.
