carolcooperruebermusings: The Coopers Return to Sac City

My grandparents spent several years in Bowman, North Dakota. This was where my father received his high school education, and both of his sisters attended school there as well, with Marion graduating from Bowman High School.

Marion then attended business college in Des Moines, Iowa, and later taught school in South Dakota. Aunt Marion married Marvin L. 'Pete' Peters December 26, 1919, and I think the marriage took place in Bowman, although I do not have documents to verify that. Uncle Pete, as I knew him, was a member of the Peters family from Bowman, North Dakota, and I am sure they met there. The young couple lived on a ranch near Buffalo, South Dakota after their marriage, perhaps when she was teaching school. They eventually settled in Nemaha, Iowa, near Sac City, and that is where I knew them as a child. My memories of my Aunt Marion are few, but I remember her as having laughing eyes, and a very dry sense of humor. One time when we visited them in Nemaha, she cooked breakfast for me. She asked me if I liked pepper on my eggs. Then, she smiled slyly and said, "If I can't find pepper for my eggs, I always put a little sand on them so it looks like they have pepper on them." My Uncle Pete was also full of fun and enjoyed children. I still have a couple of silver dollars he gave to me all those years ago. Since we lived in Cedar Rapids at that time, and it was quite a long drive to the Sac City and Nemaha area, we didn't visit often. According to her obituary, Marion had been in poor health for several years before her death. She died at the age of 52. The couple had one daughter, Claire Elaine, who was married to Donald Hatcher and lived in Des Moines. Claire and Don Hatcher were parents of David Hatcher who did news broadcasting through a national news network from Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. His deep voice became well-recognized over the long period of that war. The Hatchers also had two daughters.

I was more acquainted with my Aunt Rachel. After the family returned to Iowa from the Dakotas, Aunt Rachel attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and got a teaching degree in Art. She lived with my family for a short time while attending school there, and later taught school in Des Moines. During that time, Rachel (who was a real beauty!) dated Ronald Reagan (yes, the former United States President!) who was broadcasting on the radio in Des Moines then. I don't think she was very impressed with him, and I think they had only one date. She later met and married my uncle, Herbert C. Levenick, who eventually became principal of two elementary schools in Des Moines. The couple were parents of one daughter, Linda Rae. Since Linda and I were just nine months apart in age, we became quite close during our youth. I spent many summers with my aunt, uncle and cousin at their cabin in Northern Minnesota. My parents also had a small cabin next to the one owned by my aunt and uncle, and I have many fond memories of that place. I now realize how fortunate I was to have the opportunity to spend all those summers living on a beautiful Minnesota lake, learning to swim well, enjoy boat rides and picnics, and receiving the care and education that living with two teachers can provide. I am sure it was the influence of my Aunt Rachel that started me on the path of art education and doing the art that has been such a large part of my life. I was also very fond of my Uncle Herbert. He was probably one of the nicest men I've ever known. I came to think of him as my 'second' father...

My father 'Wayne' met my mother in Sac City, not long after the Cooper family returned there from Bowman. As this blog progresses, I will relate some background about my mother's family, with a bit of her family history as well. But, for now, I will continue to focus on the Cooper side of our family tree.

My favorite story about my parents' marriage was related to the wedding trip. When my grandmother, Maggie Barrett (my mother's mother) found out the couple planned to go on a camping trip together, she insisted they get married before they left. I don't know if they had thought they would stop somewhere on the way and get married, but Grandma Barrett would have had nothing of that! (Keep in mind, my parents were married June 10, 1921, and social mores were still pretty strict.) So, the wedding was held at my grandmother's house (my grandfather died in 1910, and Grandma Barrett was a widow for over 10 years before Wilma - my mom - got married). After the wedding, the two newly-weds were accompanied by their close friends from Sac City, Lora and Lloyd Hughes, on a trip. I have a snapshot of Lora and (her mother-in-law?) Bertha Hughes. There is a tent shown in the background of that photo, and I have always hoped that the two young couples just stopped for a visit with Lloyd's mother on the way to the Ozarks, and that Bertha was not actually a fifth party on the wedding trip! Anyway, as they drove south into Missouri, my father decided he wanted to buy my mother a diamond ring. So, they stopped at Joseph's (fancy jewelry store in downtown Kansas City) and my dad, in his camping khakis, strode into the store and asked to see 'the biggest diamond' they had! (Surely, the person who waited on these hayseeds from Iowa had a chuckle when he heard that request, but he brought out the diamonds to show them.) When my father saw the prices of these large stones, he realized he probably didn't have enough money to pay for a diamond like that! The jeweler also realized this fact, and began to show the couple smaller stones that were in the realm of reality. So, my mother got her diamond, and the troop went on their way to the Ozarks. (I still have that diamond...it has been reset at least once during the many years of their marriage - 54 years, ending when my father died in 1975). Sometimes diamonds have 'stories to tell,' but I'll bet not too many of them have a story like this one!

My parents eventually had five daughters, and I am the youngest (hard to think of oneself as 'young' at the age of nearly 75, but that is the fact). Now, though, just my sister Jean and I are left. The other three of my older sisters died within 14 months of each other, in 2012 and 2013.

More stories to come...keep following this blog!