Wilma Frances Van Brocklin Sukup

  General Notes:

Wilma Van Brocklin Sukup was a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother. She had a difficult childhood and was sickly as a young adult. She had lots of hobbies and did them all well. She was a quitler, a sewer, a wine maker, gardener and a soap maker. She collected stamps, coins, recipes and buttons. She worked on scrapbooks, photo albums and saved newspaper clippings and put into albums. One of her most endearing qualities of Wilma was as a practical joker. (She put crushed dried red peppers at the bottom of her youngest sons tobacco can, she put a "sock monkey" on top of the curtain rod and waited for the first person to say something and she always had a little joke or funny saying to share.) Unable to graduate from high school as a youth, she obtained a GED diploma when they moved to Creighton and her family was grown. She later worked as a food supervisor at a local hospital and was the best cook ever!!! She helped John with his leatherwork and taught him how to cook. Wilma also was a very religious person and saved holy cards, prayer books and rosaries from throughout the years. She always had games for the grandchildren to play. And Wilma did not let the grandkids win. She loved her family .... husband, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. She looked forward to visits from her sisters and their families.

A footnote on the "Sock Monkey". Paula Jean Sukup Johnson remembers the sock monkey on top of the curtain rod and also remembers that how it got there was not so funny! The Raymond Sukup kids were at Grandpa John and Grandma Wilma's one Saturday night after church and were fighting over the monkey, so Grandma Wilma put it up out of their reach to keep peace. Paula says "and we never got to play with it again".


When Wilma Van Brookline Sukup entered names into her Van Brooklin history book she added that three sons of Wilma Van Brooklin Sukup are color blind. (Raymond, Daniel and David). She also added the color blind syndrome to other families i.e. "Thomas and Stephen Schulte,sons of Elizabeth Ann Van Brooklin Schulte are color blind). The color blind gene is carried by the women of a family but passed to the boys. It sometimes skips a generation. The color blindness was carried by Elizabeth Krause Van Brocklin. All of her sons were color blind.


Notes from Wilma Van Brocklin Sukup "Autograph" Book. The inside front cover identifies the book, "Miss Billie Van Brocklin, Winnetoon, NE". The first poem is written by Wilma: The little book has many poems and messages. The various authors are probably from Wilma's seventh grade through tenth grade classes at St. Ludger Academy in Creighton, Nebraska.
A Consolation
When your tasks are very heavy
And your saving's' mighty few
Remember that the oak tree,
Was once a nut like you.
Yours truly, Wilma


Christmas 2008 (Gift of Wilma's High School Diploma 1972 to Douglas Cerny)
Douglas Clay Cerny.....
When your Grandmother Wilma Sukup was in tenth grade she was diagnosed with rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease than can develop as a rare complication of untreated strep throat infection. Even in untreated cases of strep throat only a small percentage of people develop rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever commonly damages the heart valves and can interfere with normal blood flow through the heart.

Grandmother Wilma left school and went to live at the farm with her Uncle Henry Van Brocklin (brother to her Father William Van Brocklin)and Aunt Minnie. There is no cure for rheumatic fever. Uncle Henry had Grandma Wilma follow him all around the farm helping him do chores and she was cured.

Grandmother Wilma Sukup did not graduate with her classmates in 1931. But Grandma Wilma never gave up and took GED classes through O'Neill High School and received her HS Diploma in 1972. It took her 43 years but she finally graduated at the age of 58.

I thought you might like to keep this diploma as a remembrance of Grandma Wilma Van Brocklin Sukup and also reflect on your "not giving up".
Love, Mother Julia Frances Sukup Cerny, Christmas 2008



Wilma's Christmas greetings:
Greetings from Santa
I am sending this message to tell you.
That hard times have taken away.
The things I find most essential-
My reindeer, my workshop, my sleigh.
I'm making my rounds on a donkey-
He is old, he is crippled, he is slow-
So you'll know if you don't see me on Christmas,
That I'm out on my ass in the snow.


Merry Christmas-1982
Since saving money is so hard-
and living cost so high-
a very fance Christmas card
we can't afford to buy.
Not to send you Season's Greeting would
never do at all - so to wish you a
Merry Christmas, we tore this off the wall.
Best wishes to all
John and Wilma Sukup
(note is written on scrap piece of wallpaper)

Mother Wilma sometimes referred to her jokes and humor as "The Van Brocklin curse". I think it still lives today.

Wilma married John Andrew Sukup, Jr., son of John William Sukup and Julia Lavinia Kurka Sukup, on 24 Jun 1936 in Creighton, NE. (John Andrew Sukup, Jr. was born on 16 Sep 1913 in Walnut, NE, died on 28 Jul 2001 in Norfolk, NE and was buried St. Ludger Cemetery in Creighton, NE.)