‘An extraordinary lady’ — Riverhill celebrates 105th birthday of resident Julia Finger

Riverhill Country Club hosted a milestone birthday party for Julia Finger on Tuesday. This year, her 105th birthday fell on Fat Tuesday, March 4, so she was deemed the official Riverhill “Queen of Mardi Gras” at the “Jazz, Creole & Julia” party thrown in her honor at the club.

“We are celebrating an extraordinary lady today,” said John Junker, general manager of Riverhill. “Words cannot express what you’ve done at this club and the friend you’ve been to so many. It’s a privilege for us to share this night with you.”

“It’s a great privilege to be here with all of you,” Julia Finger said. “So it’s a two-way street.”

Finger is the widow of Joe Finger, who died in 2003. A renowned golf course architect, Joe Finger co-designed the Riverhill course with golf legend Byron Nelson. He also redesigned the Scott Schreiner Municipal Golf Course in 1999.

A devoted golfer as an adult, Julia Finger said she didn’t always have an interest in the sport. That is, until she and Joe, an avid golfer himself, met and married in Houston.

Julia Finger joined Riverhill Women’s Golf Association as soon as the couple moved to Kerrville in 1988, she said. It was her dedicated passion to the RWGA that led to the creation of the Julia Finger Challenge.

The Julia Finger Challenge is a two-day event hosted each October that features 12 qualifying members of the RWGA and began as a way to show respect to Finger, who has been an active member of the association since 1988.

Finger still kicks off the event with a ceremonial putt for the annual Ryder Cup-style competition between the Blue Team and the Yellow Team, her favorite colors. She also plays a game of mahjong every week.

Finger was a charter member of the auxiliary to Texas Children’s Hospital, where she served for 35 years, contributing more than 20,000 hours of her time and energy. During that time, she held many offices, including president, and was given the highest honor of being named an Honorary Life Member of the group.

She was a member of the board of the Texas Association of Hospital Auxiliaries for many years. In Kerrville, she was a volunteer with the auxiliary to Peterson Regional Medical Center.

“We volunteered at the old Peterson Hospital together and had lunch every Monday,” said Janey Marcee, administrative assistant at Riverhill. “I was between jobs, and she convinced me to come work at Riverhill. I’ve been here for 20 years. I wasn’t even sure if I knew what a country club was.”

Finger also served on the board of the Friends of the Library at the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library.

Riverhill Country Club celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024. To learn more about the club, visit www.riverhillcc.com.

This article was originally published in the March 6, 2025 edition of The Kerrville Daily Times.