Pleasant Hill School
Yuma County, Colorado
Avis Marie Blach Willeke was born on May 30, 1918, the eldest of eight children born to Ambrose and Katie (Brand) Blach in Yuma, CO. She died on January 12, 2010 at the Colorado Plains Medical Center after a long fulfilled and wonderful life. Avis attended the Hammond School and graduated from the Yuma High School in 1934. After attending college in Greeley for two years, she obtained a Rural Certificate. She taught one year at Pleasant Hill School northeast of Yuma for $80 a month, and two years at Prairie View northwest of Yuma. While teaching here, many activities were shared with the Hammond, Enterprise, Pleasant Hill and Liberty Hill schools. After receiving her BA Degree from Colorado State College of Education at Greeley in Business and English in 1940, she taught at the Waverly High School north of Fort Collins for three years and worked as a clerk at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal for a year. While teaching at Waverly she met Raymond Willeke who was farming in the area. They were married on August 18, 1943 in Akron, Colorado, and celebrated their 53rd Anniversary before he died on May 30, 1996. They had farmed a few years at Wellington, Galeton, and Gary south of Brush before moving to their present home sixteen miles northwest of Otis in 1949, which was purchased from Charles Halsey. |
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