February 2010 Archives

Koftan Family History by [Great] Aunt Babe & the Hlinovsky-Zelenka Connection

Gary Don Luckert

on February 10, 2010 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In the roundabout way described, Mrs. Jenine Vrtiska mailed the following letter on Dec 28 1972. I had been helping Mom with family history, though I was actually at post-graduate school at Bowling Green University in Ohio. (Mom forwarded the letter from Center to Weston, Ohio, where I lived that year.) As well established in earlier entries, Martin Hlinovsky was the father of Great Grandmother Francis Hlinovsky Koftan, and I have photos of the family graves in the Beranek Cemetery outside Table Rock in Pawnee County, Nebraska, and the old cemetery just west of Tyndall, South Dakota. I also have a photo of Mary McNeill, taken at Running Water, South Dakota, though I was glad to re-read what Mrs. Vrtiska wrote, because now Draper in central South Dakota has potential cemetery interest. Also, Czechoslovakia in the mid-1800s was part of Austria, so don't let Austria as the country of birth startle you. We're still from Bohemia.

I also got a lengthy response from Grandpa Koftan's youngest sister, Margaret "Babe" Koftan Langhammer, before she composed the booklet of memories handed out at a Koftan reunion. I was going to retype it but decided no, the family deserved to read her easy conversational style as she's remembering. She is not a good speller. Always spelled Grandpa's name Lawrence rather than the Laurence he used. I make the same mistake with Micheal and Lindsay Ellingson's names sometimes.

Jack Luckert, Sportsman and Creator--Part 2

Gary Don Luckert

on February 10, 2010 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Our state senator when I was growing up was John Forsyth of Niobrara, powerful enough in the Legislature to keep rebuilding and repaving Highway 14 between Niobrara and Verdigre, his pet project,which kept sliding into the Verdigris Creek and Niobrara River. Notice whose name heads the list in the form letter.

The head of this deer hung on our front deck.

Above, in his 80s, I think, he pitches softball at a Koftan family reunion. Jerry Steege, husband of Deloris Koftan Steege, is behind him. Below is what gave him recognition far beyond Knox County. As long as I can remember, some kind of card game went on at the station, Center's own little Las Vegas. Or, I should say, Male Gossip Central, because Dad found out more scandal than Mom did in the courthouse and usually told me what I'd done at a dance in another town I'd gone to. Grandpa George W. Luckert preferred cribbage while taking care of the pumps, windshields, oil checks, but he and his son also played rummy, pinochle, poker, euchre with anyone willing to lose some coins. I can remember card games going on in the office part long after hours, the garage and pumps closed. Later the game moved to the rear of the Quonset shop, the table usually a wooden spool, the kind that held cables. Dad's being busy didn't stop the regular players, the customers, the salesmen, strangers from playing straight through the day, Dad buying a coffee urn to supply the players. (His son-in-law, Sue's husband, Jim, who took over the welding business, runs the same coffee-fueled game today, replacing urns as they wear out.) Dad's father and brother were notorious gamblers in earlier years, which might have explained his fondness for gambling. What it meant to us was that he'd come home with his coverall pockets sagging with coins and dollar bills. He never lacked for change for his children. And that's how Jim Javorsky happened by one day and took this prize-winning photo. Dad was indignant because people wrongfully thought he was looking into Rex Risinger's hand (our neighbor) ) to cheat, which Jim's title certainly suggests, and he always protested that he'd already folded and was merely curious about Rex's hand. But Dad was duly proud of ending up at Disney World. (I should add that the area was a card-playing hotbed. Mom belonged to the Center bridge club; Grandma and Grandpa had a card club hosted by its various farmer members.)

Dad was a very creative welder. On his own, he made hay cages, big octagonal cages on old car wheels that proved handy to ranchers as far away as the Dakotas and Wyoming for moving haystacks. The cages opened and could be narrowly collapsed when not in use or being towed. He invented a snare-proof collapsible boat anchor he had me try to get patented, but someone had beat him to the same design. He had worked it out on his own, trying various designs and testing them on his boat. (I've failed to mention that we almost always had a boat, graduating from a wooden one when I was young to fancier plastic speedboats by the time of the girls. Built his own boat trailer, naturally, and reworked a former family car to have a big, square, open back end with door, the Fish Wagon.) He was the only welder I knew who would work on automobile gas tanks--that's how good he was--which had a tendency to blow up. He could duplicate parts farmers mangled and make them all sorts of feeders. Men simply told him what they needed, and he'd make it. Here's the boat anchor. The triangular part was hinged.

Mark Donley Feddersen sent me the photo of Dad in front of a feeder he'd welded from the time of a Feddersen family visit, 1963, I think. Thank you, Mark. [Good view behind Dad across the street to what had been Mary's Cafe (then Cassie's) and Freddie's Store with the awning, the Crosley brothers' Center Garage the competition. Only the garage exists today, the other two buildings razed.]

Because Joan Burney mentions how proud Dad was of his first grandchild, Justin John (for Dad) Rohrer, as a last sportsman note a paragraph from Mom's letter to her sister, Audree, for Audree's birthday. Dad had just given Mom a new Word Processor typewriter that gave Mom fits, so I'll simply type it out.

"Jack has been getting quite a kick out of going to grade-school games, first football and now basketball. Justin plays every time, and it is a thrill for him to see his grandson play. He always said he hoped he would live long enough to see him play. . . . Sue still bowls on Tues. nights, and he is always interested in that, too. Of course, he still sponsors a Luckert's bowling team and goes once in a while to watch." Of course.

Some 1950s L.J. Koftan Family Group Photos (Ellingsons, Luckerts Included)

Gary Don Luckert

on February 10, 2010 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The first is probably in our Center yard, but I don't know. It is, of course, Larry Dale's family with Mom and me. L-R, David, Betty, my sister Sue Ellyn in Betty's arms, Larry holding Linda Jean, Gary in a fedora, Velma.

The next three seem to be taken at the same time on the west side of our house, judging from clothing clues. First is L.J. and Fern's family. L-R: a very tan Larry Dale, Audree, Velma, Fern, Laurence.

Next are the grandchildren to that time, minus Dennis Jon. Front are Linda Jean Koftan and Lindsay Craig Ellingson; second row are Penny Jean Ellingson and David Larry Koftan, and I'm at the rear holding my sister Sue Ellyn on my shoulders.

Then it's all of them, either Mom or I the one to take the photo. We're both missing. Back, L-R: Larry holding Sue, Fern, Betty, Audree, Laurence. Front, L-R: Penny, Linda, Lindsay.

Finally one from Up West at the Peters homestead. The photo is dated JAN 57, but I don't remember when Earl and Audree lived there instead of Grandma and Grandpa Koftan. Lindsay thinks it was the spring of 1955; his turtle hat cued him. If I had to guess, Micheal Laurence Ellingson is missing because he's with Grandma and Grandpa Koftan down in Arizona, but I don't know. Anyway, L-R: Dennis Jon, Lindsay Craig, Audree and Earl Ellingson. Penny Jean Ellingson is standing in front of Velma Luckert at the right. In the front are my sisters in dresses I bought them, red dotted swiss, Sue Ellyn turned, JaVee Ann holding on to Mom's hand.

A Brief Break for Fern's Wit and a Funny Photo of Jack and Larry (Before Television?)

Gary Don Luckert

on February 10, 2010 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Grandma Koftan shows off her Peters wit in this note to me on the back of a birthday card. Her sister, Myrtle Wefso, had moved from Randolph to Center into what I knew as the Clara LaFrenz house, a block south of us, Grandma and Grandpa Koftan living behind us in their trailer with the add-on living room. To be fair, Great Uncle (Dr.) Glen Peters had helped Myrtle beat leukemia well beyond the prognosis with shots, but he died, so that Myrtle wanted family around her. Mom gave her the needed shots, paid for by Aunt Myrtle's excellent bread. And Lindsay had come to live with his Grandpa Ole Ellingson, so he'll have to tell me the year. He says it was 1963, and Penny was living with Grandma and Grandpa Koftan, going to Center High School and graduating in its last class. Gram wrote this not long before her fatal stroke.

And I love this picture of Jack (Dad) and Larry in our front living room. For those of you who don't know us well enough to tell the difference, Dad is the barefoot one. Dad won the Philco radio-phonograph combination in the corner for a dollar lottery ticket.

Fern E. A. Peters Koftan in Her RNA Years--Part II

Gary Don Luckert

on February 9, 2010 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The first two are marked July 1950 and demonstrate the size of Bloomfield's Royal Neighbors of America Camp No. 42, the adults and the juveniles. In the juvenile photo, I am in the center rear next to Anita Kienow Barlow, our adult supervisor. The Ellingsons may remember Vivian and Mary Lou Clausen, daughters of Gerhard and Lizzie, who were the closest farm neighbors across the road south of the second Koftan-Bloomfield farm just two miles west of Bloomfield. Vivian is sixth from the left, Mary Lou second from the right.

In the adult photo, Grandma Fern is in the second row, fourth from the right, next to her best friend, Lillian Braunsroth, also in a dark dress. Velma, Mom, is in the center of the second row with her dark bangs, fifth to the left from Gram. At the right end of the second row is Lizzie Clausen, long the camp treasurer to whom I sent my yearly dues on my policies. Many of the members were also members of Gram's extension group, the Crystal Club, including Lillian and Lizzie.

This is the Nebraska delegation at the San Antonio convention, June 19-25, 1950. We are all in the standing back row. Mom is second from the left, often confused with Edith Evans, sixth from the left (seen in subsequent photos because she was the daughter of Alma Snyder, one of our chief state officers). I am at the right end. Gram is seventh from the right, in the center behind the State Supreme Oracle Florence Torkelsen with the rose bouquet (whose later memorial will be a few pictures on).

To the left is the Nebraska delegation at breakfast, but I don't see either Mom or Gram. I am next to the empty chair, very tan from all my walking under the Texan sun. Following that are a photo of Gram in our hotel room and one with her two best friends there, though I have only Rosewood Bennett at the left identified, with Gram turned toward her. Both friends were very funny, and we laughed a lot. I remember that.

This one was in Omaha, 1957, Gram at the left end of the front row, the aforementioned Edith Evans, Mom's lookalike, fourth from the right. I'd guess it to be of the Nebraska deputies. Grandma's chief rival/enemy selling insurance in northeastern Nebraska was Emma Richling, who lived in Neligh, third from the right in the front row, who actually had written up our family policies long before Grandma was deputized, helped by her daughter, Vera, the tall brunette second from the right in the back. They appear in other state photos here.

This is a state convention photograph from North Platte, 1958. Fern is second from the left in the front row, Emma Richling in the center. Edith Evans is fourth from the left in the rear, Vera Richling third from the right.

The last is the memorial drill for Florence Torkelsen (the State Supreme Oracle in the San Antonio photo) at Los Angeles, 1958, the martini convention. Fern Koftan is at the left, the front of the row behind the two standing women. Edith Evans is to her right in the back, and Emma Richling is at the front right.

Jack Luckert, Sportsman and Creator--Part 1

Gary Don Luckert

on February 8, 2010 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dad had such a reputation for hunting and fishing that people would ask to go with him, and he probably knew the northern edge of Knox County's hills, especially along the Missouri River, better than anyone, well enough that the county sheriff came to him whenever there was a river drowning for help finding and recovering the body. He had grown up using gun and fishing pole to help feed his family, and that continued right on through our lives. I, of course, was a Peters under Mom's jurisdiction and preferred books and music, a great disappointment to him. I got dragged to fishing spots like Lake Andes (always had a book to combat the boredom), but neither he nor Uncle Larry ever had a chance teaching me hunting, with Mom's fierce dislike of guns. (We were forever taking rifle bullets and shotgun shells out of his clothes before laundering, and they were in drawers and all over the back porch.)

I could tattletale on his hunting and fishing excesses, his misdemeanors as with the outlawed hand fishing for huge catfish along the river banks, but what's the point when the public adored him and his many stories masterfully told, as with ducks that just insisted on flying in front of his gun, whatever the limit was. Mom would be so upset with him, she'd threaten to turn him in. Game wardens tried to catch a human fox, who slyly walked a warden away chatting from a huge pile of ducks and geese Dad had shot, covered with tarps, so many fowl that he gave away all he could to scatter the evidence. Grandpa Luckert and I occasionally got our deer without firing a shot. (Does anyone not understand that Dad used our names to apply for deer permits?) He absolutely loved deer hunting, walking up and down our hills and ravines. Farmers would tell him where they had pheasants, wild turkeys, deer, and he'd take them along or divvy up the prize. The Blocks had a trout stream on their farm zealously guarded except for Jack. Two of his most favorite companions were Santee Sioux, the classy, well-educated Frazier family, especially Oray, "Ray" to us, and from him and his brother, David, Dad gained a great deal of Native American lore about fishing and hunting. Usually our regional patrolmen asked to hunt with him, which is why they helped me a couple of times when my car broke down. "Oh, you're Jack Luckert's boy? He took me up on the river last fall, and I had the best time shooting geese I ever had!" I got that a lot. Uncle Chet Luckert and Uncle Larry Koftan brought friends along, Dad as a Knox County safari guide of sorts, though he didn't much like city people, who tended to booze as if hunting was an occasion to party. Perhaps because his father and brother were alcoholics, Dad was a teetotaler and extremely proud of resisting when some men held him down and tried to force him to drink alcohol.

I resented it, because he preferred his sports to social events with Mom and me, and I definitely grew tired of the dark, greasy meat of ducks and geese before the winter was over, when he'd get up around 4:30 or 5:00 on weekends to go get sandblasted and windburned sitting on a sandbar from sunrise till sunset. Likewise with fish in the summertime, which I didn't like anyway, certainly not the smelly kind with all those bones. (Mrs. Beran next door always begged for the fish heads to make soup with.) But we had little money, and all that hunting and fishing got us free meat, whether I liked the gamy taste of pheasant or stringy rabbit or not. Venison actually makes me nauseous, no matter how it's disguised. But hunting and fishing equipment is where all his spare money went, and we were safe for once in buying him a present if it was a new rod and/or reel. I have a letter specified just to Mom because we were buying him a bow and arrow set he had talked about. Later after Bloomfield got a new bowling lanes, naturally he filled shelves in our big living room with trophies, individually and for the team he sponsored. Nothing for Jack Luckert to roll a 300. He was a supremely gifted natural athlete.

He was also supremely a baseball player, a pitcher, and that did stick, though he was such a demanding coach to me that I nervously flubbed and then hated the time he took with other boys. (He had to wait for my tomboy sister, Sue, who played softball, and her sons, Dad happily going to every football game of theirs he could, even if he froze. I must insert here that, also an avid sports fan, Sue took him to Big Red Cornhusker games, and he would be totally proud of her being Bloomfield High School's official scorer for volleyball and basketball for many years now.) Anyway, to this day I prefer baseball to other American sports, and some of my happiest times with him were when I got to take him to the College World Series here until he didn't like coping with the crowds and felt TV offered a better view, as it did. Aside from his playing on Morrillville teams, he came to Omaha to try out for a farm team here and was injured working in the stockyards, which ended his pitching career--but led to his marrying Mom and working for his in-laws, Fern and Laurence Koftan, before becoming a mechanic-welder . He managed the Center town team when I was growing up, Mom acting as the scorekeeper, so we had family togetherness for every game they played, besides which we went to other towns' games, like Bloomfield's. Much later he would umpire for those games after Center no longer competed, and much, much later he coached sister Sue's softball teams and umpired for softball leagues in his old age. All that meant that the radio and TV were monopolized by sports, from the Friday night boxing that Grandpa Luckert had to hear (the Gillette Blue Blades song still rings in my ears)--Grandpa had taught all his sons to box--to the Saturday afternoon Cornhusker football radio broadcasts that conflicted with my Metropolitan Opera to the excess of games at holidays in later TV years. After Mom died and he lived there alone, in the summer I knew I could walk in and find him in his chair watching a ball game on TV. The Boston Red Sox were his team, always, and he was buried with a baseball autographed by that team at the time obtained by cousin Penny Mindemann. (Mine has always been the New York Yankees, maybe because they swept the World Series in my birth year in four straight games or maybe because my superintendent, Robert Pease, also a baseball nut, insisted we listen to the World Series annually in high school assembly, and the Yankees usually won--of course, or there wouldn't be the musical, Damn Yankees. Or maybe to spite Dad, who hated the Yankees as every Red Sox fan does, and vice versa . I don't honestly know.) I do consider his love of baseball one of his greatest gifts to me. This photo of him in his Morrillville uniform at the Old Brick House sits on my shelf by my desk.

More proof and photos in Part 2.

Fern E. A. Peters Koftan in Her RNA Years Part I

Gary Don Luckert

on February 8, 2010 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

After Grandma and Grandpa Koftan retired from traveling around with Larry and Betty, Laurence/L.J. working for his son, they settled in Center behind us on a rear, northern lot. Both remained active, Grandpa picking up odd jobs, especially helping on farms, and Grandma Fern, social as ever, becoming a Royal Neighbors of America deputy (insurance salesman) for that old fraternal insurance organization headquartered in Rock Island, Illinois. Women have always run it and been the officers and deputies until the feminist movement produced the civil rights effect so that men are now both officers and salesmen.

I grew up an RNA Juvenile--not delinquent but a participant in a youth group largely for the same kind of fraternal meetings, passwords and secret handshakes and the like, with much emphasis given to fancy drill work on the floor between the four stations like compass points. It is the only life insurance I have, and Grandma bought me my first policy. Grandma was an RNA leader, Oracle at one time or another, and Mom/Velma also very active. Mom often sang for programs or was a group song leader. We met on the second floor of the old Bloomfield fire hall, the two-story brick building west across the alley from the "new" post office. We went to regional and state conventions, where our drill teams would perform. I have photos of the adult and juvenile drill teams which I will later append to this entry after I find my identification list. I knew many Bloomfield women because of their being Royal Neighbors, including most of Gram's friends.

Fern became very successful in Nebraska and in the South, traveling around, so that it was a good source of income, and she went to all the national conventions. Shortly before her fatal stroke at 67, she had been to one at Los Angeles in 1958 where she had tasted her first martini, having come that far from the black-stockinged severely puritanical Methodist in the family's first decades. In an earlier entry were the grey photos we took in 1950 of our trip to the national convention at San Antonio, held in The Plaza Hotel right on the famous River Walk not far from La Villita and an outdoor theater. (I got such blisters from walking along that scenic way clear down to the Alamo that I could not wear shoes the last few days of our trip.)

Here is our hotel bill, included for its astonishing fee of $7.00 a day, double occupancy. It was a posh place too, as my postcards and later photos will show. Its logo and the prominent "Completely and Continually Air-Conditioned," clearly a selling point in 1950 that later became standard, were on the envelopes too..

We were the only three-generation trio there, I thInk, and so got our little niche of publicity.

We also participated in the elaborate demonstrations by the states, though I can't tell you where to find Grandma and Mom in the Nebraska delegation picture. I'm at the front along the stair rail. And the Colorado delegation photo is here because I was the rear of their mule because of my size, for which the Colorado women doted on me. As my letters to Dad (Jigger was my dog at the time I was 12) show, with Mom's confirmation above, I was busier than either of them. And I had forgotten I was Oracle (top office) of the Bloomfield RNA Juveniles then, a plus for us.

Deputy Fern's RNA stationery was a particular blue, announcing her position. In illustration, first, an envelope and then a rhymed letter from her couched in the Edgar Guest style she got from her father which has become part of the family tradition, passing through Velma, Larry to his daughter, Linda, and son, David, and Audree to Audree's granddaughters, Linda Mindemann Bartleson and Jill Ellingson Kruse in their Christmas letters now. Noticeably, the heading is from her days in the South, but she writes from Center, and I am at Minot, ND, where JaVee wrote me in the earlier entry. (I shall have to look up Mom's poem and Audree's poem to me sometime.) Linda Koftan did the family a great favor in collecting all of Grandma Fern's poems she had access to and having them printed in vanity book style. Of course, she didn't have this one. (And I write poetry, yes, but not this kind, the college English teacher kind, usually blank verse with much word play because Shakespeare and Joyce are my culture heroes of our language. I add that merely to explain why I'm not included in the family list.)

In her deputy capacity, she's awarding someone not identified an RNA pin, probably for number of years as a member.

The Royal Neighbor magazine had its own obituary for her. I apologize for Mom's glue job.

I found so many photos, I'm creating a Part II for them.

Assorted Old Luckert Family Photos

Gary Don Luckert

on February 8, 2010 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Uncle Chet's first wife, Sarah/Sally Clements Luckert, sister to Uncle Rich's first wife, Ella, and

Darlene LuRee, in front of their South Omaha house, south of the then huge stockyards.

Uncle Joe and Aunt Evelyn Luckert Bruhn with their first grandchild, Barbara Kramer (Walter and Joyce Bruhn Kramer), outside their Newman Grove, NE, farm house.

Phyllis and Stanley Luckert (Rich and

Sylvia ) with Grandfather

George W. Luckert

outside the West Hotel in Denver.

Uncle Rich Luckert and his son, Alton, by his first wife, Ella (see first photo for note about her sister, Aunt Sally),

"up near Pikes Peak on the Stage road."

Leah North and Cousin Elizabeth Evelyn "Bubbs" Stocking Davids at one of Velma Luckert's school picnics. Bubbs is, of course, in the checked dress at the right.

Some family reunion of the George W. Luckert family minus only one, Bessie/Betty Liberty.

L-R: Chester/Chet, John/Jack, Evelyn, their father George, Elizabeth/Lizzie (she loved to stick her tongue out when she was tickled), and Richard/Rich. Below is George W. in front of son Rich's Sinclair station in Shenandoah, IA, in the early Twenties.

Jerry & Deloris Koftan Steege Family & Johnnie Lee Presson Family (Son of Phyllis Koftan Flemming Presson)

Gary Don Luckert

on February 8, 2010 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Besides my 1993 Christmas card photo, I thank Deloris for her family tree, as I thank Janet Presson, Phyllis' daughter-in-law, for the following photo and identifications and the bracketed additions about wives' birthdates.

"Top Row: Amy & Shelby, Amy Ruth & Ryan, Ashley & Justin, Jennifer & Stephen. Middle Row: Johnnie & Janet, Taylor. Bottom Row: Si, Morgan, Savanna & Lane.

Johnnie Lee Presson Oct 2 1955; Janet Frances (Ricker) Presson July 28th 1957

Stephen Lewis Hill Aug 20th 1975

Jennifer Hill Dec 10th [Jennifer Baril Hill, 10 Dec 1975]

Morgan Hill Nov 8th 1995

Taylor Hill Aug 13th 2003

Shelby Gene Presson Sept 1 1976

Amy Presson Sept 8 [Amy Sue Christine Presson, 8 Sept 1974]

Savanna Marie Presson June 12 1996

Silas Gene Presson Jan 15th 2003

Ryan Lee Presson Sept 9 1980

Amy Ruth Presson May 7th [Amy Ruth Collins Presson, 9 May 1984]

Lane Ryan Presson Nov 14 2002"

And I may as well append two photos I just found, one of Phyllis Koftan Flemming Presson dressed up for some special occasion (high school prom?) and one of her son Gene Presson at 16.

A Naughty Little Recitation Poem

Gary Don Luckert

on February 8, 2010 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From her Grandfather Peters and his leadership in the Mariaville Chatauqua and literary group through Fern, her mother's own interest in reciting and writing poetry (Nellie, Glenn, and Myrtle, too), Mom (Velma Koftan Luckert) had a popular gift for reciting dramatic poems like "No Kicka My Dog," "Little Orphan Annie," "Casey at the Bat," "The Cremation of Sam McGee," and others, including this--for our time--risque little effort, which rappers and other vulgarians today would find silly and certainly not offensive. It is in her handwriting.

E. L. Peters Family Mementos, Fern's Teaching Contracts

Gary Don Luckert

on February 7, 2010 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This charming little baby announcement is merely 3 1/2 X 2 3/4 inches. Notice that the address is just the community--no box number nor Rural Route--so I'm thinking the little post office by the Peters homestead was still operating, south of the Mariaville general store and school.

In this 1906 Souvenir with presumably the teacher's portrait on the cover, I think Director of the School Board meant that Great Grandfather Peters was the Chairman. Several of the pupils have familiar names, like the Peacocks and Andersons, in the pupil list besides E.L. and Mary's two youngest daughters, Myrtle and Fern. (We went to Gardie Peacock's Golden Wedding Anniversary in Long Pine; David Peacock had a Saint Bernard I and the Ellingson boys played with while the adults went to a funeral when we were very young; Chester Anderson lived across the road a bit south from the Peters homestead where Grandpa and Grandma Koftan lived--and Audree and Earl.) I did not scan the back heavy cardboard cover matching the front. Fern Peters wrote her name on the back of the pupil page.

I may well have used this photo before but don't think so. It is actually a postcard with a fancy-edge photo that includes Fern Effie Adelaide Peters in the second row, the one with the bow tie. On the post card side is written "Mattie [Mattie Brown], Fern, Amberette [Flaherty], Ralph Jeffreys [Jefferis]." My bracket additions are from the pupil list above.

Note that Fern's first teaching contract was when she was 15, the second her next year at 16.

"We Love Old Pickups"--Jim & Sue Rohrer Family

Gary Don Luckert

on February 6, 2010 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This two-page spread ran in Nebraska Living several years ago, before Justin and Michelle's three were born obviously. The pickup is still there at the south end of their lot along the highway, though now Sue's got a beautiful arbor for family gatherings, wild grape finally having taken hold and covering it, north a ways halfway between the pickup and the house. Justin and Michelle at tail end, Jim and Sue, then Chessie with dog Chester, my walking buddy before he died last autumn, Chase in his blond phase, and Jared, all the children in chronological order. Chase and Jared were still in Bloomfield High School, I believe. Now everyone's in Omaha except Jim and Sue.

Gertrude "Billie" Schafer Luckert's Letters with Photos

Gary Don Luckert

on February 6, 2010 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was fortunate to be able to renew acquaintance with Uncle Richard Charles Luckert's third wife, Aunt Billie (b. 20 October 1914) in her later years and have rediscovered her letters to me and two that she wrote to cousin Kay Vanness Sanger, who forwarded them and actually visited Aunt Billie at Carmel, CA, where she lived in her last years. Sue's records lack all of Rich's marriage dates, but I will make amends when their son, Richard Earl (REL), tells me after I have forwarded these family pleasures on to him. There is a "Sept 18 '41" on the back of this photo, which is probably correct. Whether the photo is a marriage photo or not, I don't know.

I had earlier entered formal portraits of them but now wonder if that is correct. And I have found some other old photographs including her, which cousin Kay somehow got and also forwarded. Rich had a son, Alton Lincoln Luckert (b. 12 February 1923), by his first wife, Ella Clements Luckert, and I have previously dealt with that history. A sister to Sarah/Sally who married Rich's brother, Chester/Chet, Ella died when Alton was three and is buried in Bloomfield (see those cemetery pictures). Alton was brought up by Rich's second wife, Sylvia Maranville Luckert, by whom he had Phyllis (b. 13 January 1928) and Stanley (b. 13 May 1931). He had Richard Earl (b. 15 June 1943) and George Washington (1 August 1948) with Gertrude/Billie.

Here is a photo of Aunt Billie with Alton, with "6/24/42--Dad--I Think This is as Good a Picture as one could get of Both Dont You. Do You Wonder Why I am Proud of Them. Rich." I have another undated photo of ours of Alton in his WWII uniform, which is how I remember him from my childhood when he visited us in his uniform, which I'll include.

The following is another at Aunt Lizzie's outside her house: Grandpa George W. Luckert, Rich and Billie, Phyllis and Stan.

I don't know when she sent me these two or if Kay Vanness Sanger did. Above Aunt Billie is with her brother. At left she's laughing at a Duane Hansen sculpture that I've seen (and I know how deceptively realistic his people were, starting to ask one a question at the Joslyn show here). As she mentioned in one of her letters to me, this is Aunt Billie and her son, George, "Where we lived just up from Monterey Bay in Pacific Grove."

I want to type in one of her letters, a long one with family history and Nebraska anecdotes. I did scan in a short letter to prove that her legibility was just fine in her late 70s and type the other only because her pages are too long for the scanner and also would require much more space. This short scanned letter refers to her birthplace, Nehawka, NE, a village northwest of Nebraska City, almost straight west of Shenandoah, IA, where coincidentally Rich had met Sylvia and run a Sinclair station. I had sent her one of those fancier state maps put out for tourists, and then she goes on amusingly about the 1919 Volstead (National Prohibition) Act, famous for creating bootlegging and such criminals as Al Capone. Sheldon would be a fairly familiar name to Nebraskans besides the governorship, at least is to me, for the Sheldon Memorial Art Museum (a Philip Johnson building) and Sculpture Garden on the UNL campus in Lincoln. The next time I visit it, I shall think of Aunt Billie, named for Gertrude Sheldon Wolf. And she did indeed include a Sheldon family incident about Nebraska's Rose Bowl appearance, as you will read.

Always stylish, as I mentioned earlier, she included two photos with a very short letter, "Taken 10-20-94 My 80th," which I shall split. Her ashes were spilled into the Pacific by George, who wrote me after her death.

I am not bothering with proper use of quotation marks, for I'm copying this 1-29-94 letter verbatim, including my bracketed explanations, and correcting her infrequent misspellings:

Dear Gary,

Forgive the lined paper--I am too old to slide down hill or for that matter to climb. So much for the aging process, enough to have to admit the spotty memory.

Thanks for the letter. Will try to give it a line by line answer. To begin--I made copies of the calendar and, true to form--left the calendar [I had sent her] in the copy machine at Mail Boxes. They said it was not here. Some one must have found it & recognizing the true spirit of the subject matter, decided to add it to his collection of interesting photography.

Speaking of which--glad for the picture you sent. I feel more like I'm writing to some one I can see. And in return here is one of George and me--taken in 91.

Don't hurt yourself with the walking. You'd be surprised at what 20 or 30 min. of good 2.5 or 3 mph will do if done on a regular basis and the speed sustained. Gets the heart going & will burn up 80 to 100 calories--but must be sustained. Sorry to get repetitive (not really)!

Where is the "Old Market" [our most popular tourist destination besides the Doorly Zoo]. Remember I once lived in Omaha. 2922 Decatur, 1020 So. 29th, 817 Park Ave., 605 So. 29th. I went to Hanscom Park grade school off & on until I got through the 8th grade. [President Gerald Ford was born across the street from Hanscom Park.]

Glad for you that you can take such great trips, the best road is the one to sanity. I could not handle your job [court stenographer]. Now that I live in single blessedness I do not have to contend with stress. I do worry that I may wear out the remote as I browse. I prefer most of the old movies even though I can't believe how innocent we all were to buy into the "messages"?

Back to your vacation--You took me to some of my old country. I went to 13 schools before I got out of high school--plus all the moving we did keeping up with Rich's jobs. I did my freshman & Jr. years in Kemmerer Wyo. [hometown of J.C. Penney]. I lived off & on on the Wind River Reservation at Ethete (pronounced EEthaTEE)--means "good" in Arapahoe--during that time I spent 2 summers on working cattle ranches as nanny-house keeper and/or kitchen help in DuBois. [My trip I had written her about was to western Wyoming, and I had stayed in Dubois at the edge of that reservation.] Also during that time I had a couple of passes at Denver--the second of which brought me in touch with Rich. He was on the same job as my brother, Joe, at Fort Francis E. Warren in Cheyenne--and they came down to spend an interesting weekend in Denver & there I was! You don't want to hear about the rest, and like the old Yogi Berra wisdom I have no desire to do "deja vu all over again"! We lived in Salt Lake City, Idaho Falls, Gillette Wyo., Virginia Minn (George born there '48), Bowman ND, Rapid City-Edgemont-Burke-Stickney & Aberdeen SD. We lived in Kearney NE--where Rel was born in '43--Grand Island and Shelby NE. We lived in Colo. Springs twice. The second time proved to be the last that we traveled in "double harness."

I was born in Nehawka NE & spent some school time in Cozad. My soph. yr. was in St. Joe MO. After the WY jr. yr. we moved back to Raytown & then Independence MO. We lived one block up from the Trumans. He was then an official "appointed" something to do with highways, which was how Dad knew him (they were not friends).

Well at this time my pen is getting tired--Better give it a rest.

In 1936 I took a vacation in Wis.; it was a summer when they had some interesting fires. It had been pretty dry so finding worms for fishing was difficult. We went up to Madison and on to Fond du Lac which was as far as we went. Don't know just where they are but know we did go through the Dells which were at that time quite a tourist attraction. Then returned to Lewiston [Illinois] where I was living then. I had quit school just 2 1/2 credits from graduation and went back 1/2 days for the last semester to earn them and graduate in the 50th anniversary of Edgar Lee Master's graduation. He did not come that year as he is not too well liked in that area. Too many people were still living who had relatives or were themselves referred to in his "Spoon River Anthology."

I did touch into Wis. once before in 1928. Dad was supervising the building of a connecting road between Green Bay Hiway & Seredan [?] Rd., the 2 main roads between Chicago and Milwaukee. During that time we lived in Zion City, Il., a cult settlement. They manufactured lace & fine filled candies & the best fig newtons I ever ate. But then we were lucky enough to be able to get them when they were still warm. I still have a lace curtain panel that was made there and of the type that was displayed at the Worlds Fair in Chicago. The man who started the cult was put aside by a man named Volina, who knew a good thing when he saw it and of course drove it into the ground. The fact that he needed a bodyguard and used a limousine with bullet-proof windows may have had some negative effect on the "followers." Chicago got a little upset also because his broadcasting station was stronger than theirs. Anyway, so no smoking, card playing or popular music or any other "Sin" was allowed. We went into Wis. to see movies or dance. The town was Kenosha and easy to make it in time for shows so they were on daylight saving. The reason I went to Wyo. with my sister & brother-in-law was because school was due to start before the job was finished & my parents would have been required to sign a paper stating that they believed the world was flat, which was one of the Zionites' tenets.

I haven't decided just where this letter is going. I know my penmanship is really losing ground and legibility and spelling "ain't too hot"!

So take heart and take care. This may be the last of this that you will need to endure.

I got a nice card with note from Sis (Anne Stocking Alexander?)--just seems like too many of those young people are gone.

Give my love to Jack and your sisters--Billie.

The Sheldon family anecdote involving the 1941 Nebraska Rose Bowl appearance was in a letter to Kay Vanness Sanger:

The Sheldon Art Museum was of interest as it was named for one-time Gov. of Nebr. whose sister was Gertrude Wolf, hence my name. They lived in Nehawka where I was born. My father worked for the Wolfs for a time when he & Mother were first getting started. The Sheldons & Wolfs & Pollards were the "great" families of Nehawka. Sounds impressive till you learn that the town had a population of 300. But, seriously, lots of good people there--The Shafers among them (mine). I believe I heard that there is an Ag college in Lincoln named for Evelyn Wolf, who was always very active there. She was a maiden lady school teacher.

. . . . Of course I must go on with the Sheldon Saga. Of course they all went to Ne. U.! Some, however, were not very athletic. One especially was but only in his heart. After a while his mother began to wonder why this child was costing so much to educate. Don't know what he told her, but the fact is he was totally supporting a very poor but very promising player. Sometime in the 40s (I think) when Nebr. was entered in the Rose Bowl, it was announced, after Ne. made an important point and went ahead, that someone in the stands had collapsed. Sheldon had of course gone to the greatest game of his life & tho they lost the game--he died there thinking they had won--Great story and true.

. . . . Couple of wks ago we had a style show put on by one of the stores. I modeled. That's OK. Surprised me too. Really had fun . . . .

JaVee's Letter

Gary Don Luckert

on February 6, 2010 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I mentioned that I was finding plenty of new fuel for this family scrapbook. In the happy, happy and much quieter, calmer Forties and Fifties and even later, we fortunately didn't have the brusque habits and short attention spans bred by our electronic media, TV and today's e-mail, text messages, Twitter, and the like. We actually wrote letters, frequently, of many pages. In a dump box I've found dozens of such delights, from aunts, Mom, one from Dad, other relatives, various friends. Even my sisters had the habit. And, like Mom, I've saved much, including at least 50 of her letters. Anyway, this particular charmer is from my baby sister, JaVee, written with punchy Imagist power to me when I was teaching at Minot State (ND). She was 10 at the time, and the "Monday 7, 1964," would have been September, I think, after I'd been home in Center for the summer and then returned to Minot to teach.

For readers who need to know the references beyond the power of the compact descriptions: Sam Key was the County Treasurer; his wife, Kay, worked in the County Assessor's Office with Mom (who was Deputy County Assessor), and they were friends accordingly, so that we visited Sam and Kay sometimes when in Bloomfield. Grandpa Koftan lived behind us in Center. Of course, he, like everyone else there and elsewhere, knew everyone in the courthouse.

Ethel Clark was the Center Congregational Church--later Church of Christ through merger--pianist and choir director for 50-some years, Mom an alto in the choir for nearly that long (53?). Ethel was my piano teacher, and I was in junior choir and then senior choir under her direction. Sue and JaVee worked for her when they were little, helping clean (she was rather bitchy with them). Charlie, her husband, had an abstract office on Main Street. Their son, Tom, was a year ahead of me in school. Charlie's mother, the little steel-corseted Rose Clark, was my Sunday School Superintendent.

JoAnn Davison Eisenbeiss, Stan's wife, married into an old Center family after her 1957 Center High graduation. Joyce was their daughter, Kelly their then new son, with Rodney to come as a later third and final. I don't know who was in the hospital but assume she means JoAnn and the baby boy.

Peases had lived next door to us in the Superintendent's house, which Robert/Bob was for my junior high and high school (and longer). Maxine was one of Mom's best friends. Their first three boys played with my sisters, next-door neighbors, after all. I think this visit was because, by this time, Bob was Creighton's superintendent, where the family naturally then lived, and so a stop after the Creighton hospital's maternity ward (Lundberg Memorial, where Sue has now worked for 30 years or so).

And I found one from me to her, from the Minot days.

Luckert Photo Medley (Stocking, Bruhn, Alexander, Davids, McShannon, Luckert)

Gary Don Luckert

on February 4, 2010 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been tackling my one back bedroom that is my "attic," messy and cluttered, so I've been finding bunches of photos stashed away in no particular order, which explains the range of dates and people in this group. First, an undated photo of the Luckert farm in the Morrillville area halfway between Bloomfield and Center, where George and Anna Jones Luckert reared their family after their soddy days, the house washed out in the bright light at the right side of the barn, between the barn and the three trees. It looks to be some kind of assessing photo.

Next an early photo of Harold and Anne Stocking Alexander.

An early photo of Elizabeth Evelyn "Bubbs" Stocking Davids and her son, Owen, born 6 June 1945, to help approximate the picture's date. It seems clearly at her mother's--Aunt Lizzie Luckert Stocking's--farm.

I may have used this one before, but it's worth repeating and another one at Aunt Lizzie's, great grandchildren gathered around George Washington Luckert, L.-R.: Joan and Gene McShannon, Owen Davids (figure out the date using the photo of him just above), and Dixie Alexander. The flowers suggest that it's Easter.

Another photo of Grandpa Luckert, with Uncle Rich Luckert's "Concrete Batch Plant--Enough Concrete to Build 510 Miles Side Walk Will Be Used" on the back, suggesting Rich's Kiewit years and a rare visit by his dad, probably when Rich and his family lived in Rapid City, SD.

A photo of "Bradley Scott McShannon, Age 7 1/2 months," Archie and Hazel Stocking McShannon's tagalong born well after Joan and Gene above, sadly killed in a motorcycle accident when he was 21, buried next to his parents, those cemetery photos in another entry.

A photo from a visit of Aunt Evelyn Luckert Bruhn's to our house in Center, on our front step. Back row, L.-R.: Cousin Judy Bruhn, Aunt Lizzie Luckert Stocking, Barbara Kramer, Aunt Evelyn's granddaughter brought up by her like a sister to Judy and a bit older, actually Judy's niece and my second cousin (daughter of Walter and Joyce Bruhn Kramer). Front row: Aunt Evelyn Luckert Bruhn between my sisters, Sue Ellyn at the left and JaVee Ann at the right. Had to be in the late Fifties, Sue born in 1952, JaVee in 1954.

And actually two of Grandma Koftan's photos but Luckerts, us, exactly as Gram has it labeled, 1950, at my eighth-grade graduation (hence my carnation and Mom's corsage) in our front living room.

And Dad/Jack showing off his newest fishing rod on the street in front of our house, looking south to where Ernie and Minnie Sandoz then lived, later/now Rex (deceased) and Gladys Risinger. I'd say it was about the same time as the one above, 1950 or so. It can be contrasted to the one of him very young I recently found, apparently taken at Aunt Lizzie's farm. (And I always say her name for the farm because Uncle Vern died when I was two.)

When I was little, people called me "Little Jack" because I looked like a Luckert then, tall, thin, dark--though I aged into Koftanhood in looks and figure. You can judge for yourself from this photo taken at JaVee's in Dad's last years and a blurry one from my high school days.

I also wanted to add two newspaper items of interest. First, in the 21 January 2010 Bloomfield Monitor, under the "Monitor Moments, 100 Years Ago--1910" was this item about Great Grandfather John C. Luckert: "John Luckert shipped four railroad cars of cattle to the Omaha markets on Thursday of last week."

Last July in the Omaha World-Herald and later the Norfolk Daily News was the account of a lawsuit filed against the Dodge County (NE) jail for negligence in an inmate's death, the plaintiff the defendant's mother, Sherry Luckert of Effingham, Kansas. Anyone who Googles that same county or the Luckert name for Kansas will have dozens of entries popping up, though I have no idea if they are related to the Nebraska Luckerts. The name is hardly a common one.

Emil & Mamie Kaftan

Gary Don Luckert

on February 3, 2010 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

To save repeating, I'll begin with the last first, Emil's obituary.

He was Grandpa Laurence Koftan's cousin, and his family retained the original Czech spelling of the family name, as I illustrated in the earlier cemetery photos where Frank and Vince Kaftan are buried with their wives, the same Tyndall, SD, cemetery that Martin Hlinovsky and his family and young sisters of Laurence are buried. Emil and Mamie usually came down every summer with their daughters from Tyndall, South Dakota's major Czech town west of Yankton and merely 40 or 50 miles from my hometown, Center, to visit Grandma and Grandpa and us. We got Christmas cards from them, and I still do from Patsy, though Eleanor and her family have never stayed in touch like her parents and Patsy. This is one sent to the folks in the late Forties, I'd guess, followed by the one I received from Patsy this past Christmas, 2009.

Grandpa Koftan enjoyed going up to visit relatives and to enjoy Tyndall's Czech Days. Sue and I visited in 2001, if the photo date is right. Te widowed Eleanor is a substantial farm owner helped by her children. Patsy lives in Emil and Mamie's home filled with enviable old framed family photos, Emil in the Good Samaritan Rest Home at the time, where Patsy worked then and now. He was 99 or 100, toothless so that I had difficulty understanding him, but Sue didn't. He was lively, alert, remembering us, asking questions about the family, delighted to see us again after decades. He kept busy by tearing up cloths in strips for making rag rugs. I was upset that Patsy didn't let me know of his death until several months after the funeral, or I would certainly have gone to his funeral. Eleanor came into town only because Patsy was very nervous, and she didn't stay long, but I did get photos of her and Patsy and then Emil, Patsy, and Sue at the rest home.

Larry Koftan Family Miscellany

Gary Don Luckert

on February 3, 2010 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have run across the following, to be forwarded to Linda now. First, I think, is the official wedding photo of Larry Dale and Betty June Hupp Koftan, married 23 April 1945 at the Methodist Parsonage in Yankton, SD (which I had forgotten, Yankton being fairly popular in family marriages, Mom and Dad's with Joe and Ella's, later Dennis Jon Ellingson's first).

Next are two photos when Larry was a construction foreman (for Dixie Construction maybe?) and engaged in building the then-new Iowa State Animal Disease Laboratory complex in Ames, Iowa. He is second from the right in the first photo, the next photo obviously an aerial view to show the size.

I cropped off the top photo of several women, interested in the lower one only. Uncle Larry is by the very tall man.

Larry and Betty lived at Phoenix, AZ, one of the many places his work as a stone-setting managerial foreman took them. This is either when Grandma and Grandpa Koftan and Mike Ellingson went to visit and also visited Leon Hammond, Fern's cousin, who had an Arizona date farm or when Grandma and Grandpa were following Larry and Betty around and also lived for a time in Arizona. (Mom mentioned in one of her letters that she was unhappy Grandma liked the Southwest.) I'd guess it's Lake Powell in the background. The first photo has Larry and Betty with Linda in front of the saguaro, Grandpa Laurence Koftan. The second is of David Koftan and Michael Ellingson.

And here is Linda Jean's graduation picture. She'll have to fill in the year.

Mervin W. Feddersen

Gary Don Luckert

on February 3, 2010 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mervin Wendell (b. 22 March 1908; d. 3 November 1973) was the older surviving son of John and Nellie Peters Feddersen, brother to Donley Fim Feddersen and to Robert, who died in infancy and is buried with the parents in the Bassett (NE) cemetery. Mervin is buried in Freeport, IL, in the Military Section of the Oakland Cemetery.

Mervin was a great favorite of ours for his gusty good humor. He was married twice, first to Agnes McLaughlin at Agar, SD, 5 October 1935, and then to Charlotte Pearson 9 May1959 in Boone, IA, after Agnes' death in 1958. I thank Charlotte (misspelled by Grandma Fern Koftan on the photo) for supplying much of this data. They had two children, Sven (b. 13 March 1960) and Sara (b. 19 August 1963, m. John Ed Bowling 12 October 1991). I'm forwarding everything below to Charlotte, who quite coincidentally lived in the same complex as the son-in-law, Mike Kruse, of Lindsey and Pat Ellingson (he married their elder daughter, Jill) in Boone, and again I thank her for her help.

First is his 1931 Commencement Program from Springfield (SD) State Normal School, the title for teachers training colleges. Springfield is close to Niobrara, NE, just on the other side of the Missouri River from my home county. His brother Donley and Mom, Velma, went to Wayne State Normal (Wayne, NE), which became Wayne State Teachers by the time I got there, and is today simply Wayne State College with programs far beyond teaching.

I suspect but don't know that this photo is from that time.

He obviously did very well in the Navy, as the following photo and clipping prove, and I have mentioned previously that Grandma Fern Koftan, his aunt; Mom (Velma Luckert), his cousin; and I visited him at the Navy Recruiting Center in Sioux City, IA, where he and Agnes lived when I was growing up. I know they had lived in San Francisco for a time because his car had the strongest, sudden brakes I'd ever experienced, and that was why, so that ever after strong brakes meant San Francisco hills (and Mervin) to me. We also visited Agnes' gracious family in Sioux Falls, where her parents lived next to a railroad; we met various members, though the only one I recall is her albino sister, the first time I had ever met one; and they took us to some wonderful park with all kinds of ornamental rocks like rose quartz and geodes in a miniature setting (rockhound that I have been), the third vivid memory I have of that visit.

The following is self-explanatory, dealing with his and Charlotte's son's birth. I include the envelope because I think it's his printing, I know it's Mom's notation, and the letter has a four-cent stamp for first class. The announcement was written by him, I'm sure.

Mildred, Ella, Merle Larson (Ella Koftan, Mildred Wenke)

Gary Don Luckert

on February 3, 2010 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I discovered some wonderful old photos below of the three Larsons, Mildred, Ella, and Merle, Ella later marrying Grandpa (Laurence) Koftan's youngest brother, Joseph, a good friend of Dad's (Jack Luckert) in their younger days, and Mildred marrying Walter Wenke, as illustrated in previous entries. The photo of Mildred looks remarkably like Ella's daughter, Dolores (or, rather, vice versa) and is lovely. Mildred Larson Wenke wrote to me in her last years, and I don't know if that's where I got the four-page "A Bird-Squirrel Tale--1990," but I include it for family interest. The originals are being sent to Delores.