Recipes for Living Lowell and Gloria Cochran

Clarke Countians pronounce Cochran as Co’horn or Cah'horn. However, when Lowell went into the Navy and gave his name, the boatswain accused him of not even knowing how to spell his own name, and he was Cock'-ran all the while he was in the service. Now Lowell and Gloria have begun pronouncing it that way themselves. It saves lots of explaining. Lowell and his younger sister, now Darlene Loeschen, were born and raised northeast of Osceola. Their parents were Paul and Hazel Cochran. They lived just south of the old county farm, which was in operation in their younger days. This was the provision for people in the situation now taken care of by welfare. John Stickler operated it. The people lived in a large house, farmed the land, and lived on what they raised. When Gloria was in junior college, one of the outings for the class was to go there for a husking bee. There were about 20 young people who were divided into teams. They had two wagons and four to six rows of corn each. Lowell was home from the service and drove one of the wagons. His biggest challenge was to keep from getting clobbered with the ears of corn as the students threw them into the wagon. When they had finished, they went into the house for a family-style dinner. Gloria's team, Wagon #1, were the winners and had their picture in the Sunday paper.

Even though Gloria was not in junior college at the time of an earlier student, Bob Conwell, she is included in his invitations. As he was growing up, his parents were very poor and he didn't know where the money was coming from for him to attend the school. After he graduated, he spent his last dollars on a real estate venture that proved successful and he’s been well-to-do ever since. A few years ago he invited everyone who had ever attended the college to a reunion, picking up the tab for the entire event. He has done so again this year. It will be a luncheon meeting at the Osceola Country Club.

Except for one year when Lowell went to town school, he attended Freemont #8 through eighth grade, and completed his high school education in Osceola in 1938. He started farming and also measured corn for the ASC (Agriculture Stabilization Commission). By this legislation, if farmers had more corn than they needed, they could sell it to the government. They kept the corn in their own cribs, and in the fall they could buy it back if they wanted to. It was Lowell's job to check the measurement of the corn. In the process he found it interesting that the wealthiest people were the hardest to get along with. He could deal pleasantly with poorer farmers who had maybe 1,000 bushels.

In 1942, several notable events occurred. Gloria was a senior in high school. One night Willard Johnson, Doyle Ventling, and Lowell picked up Bernie McClintic, Helen Beeman, and Gloria Day and they scooped the loop. Lowell took Gloria home that night. The next Sunday night he took her to a show, and they did the same on the following Wednesday night. Gloria has reason to remember that there was a large step into the theater. One night she tripped and couldn't regain her balance until she got clear into the dark area. "I was pretty shy and embarrassed, but I broke Lowell in really well. Our main entertainment was going to shows, and then we would stop for a hamburger at the Silver Spur Restaurant, which was a little sandwich shop owned by Kenny Lynn."

Gloria was born in Knox Township to Emerson and Hazel Day. She was delivered at home by Dr. Hollenbeck. "I found the check for his services when we moved to town. $50."

"Those who have been Osceola residents for some while, particularly those who know about church activities from years ago, would remember my mother, Hazel Day. She graduated from Osceola High School and was Valedictorian of her class. She and Dad were very active in the Lacelle Methodist Church and she continued her activity in the Osceola church after they moved to Osceola in 1955. She regularly attended worship services, Sunday School, Women's Society and Bible study groups. She was one of the Quilters, that was organized in 1956 or 1957. There is a record in the historical files of the church, showing their members and the work they did. In the beginning they charged 1 ½¢ a yard of thread, increased in time to 2¢, and finally 3¢. The cost per quilt would be from $6 to $15. The ladies worked two days a week or more if there was need, and they turned all the proceeds-hundreds of dollars-to the church."

Both Emerson and Hazel loved to play cards, as did their next door neighbors, Willie B. and Blanche Underwood. In the summertime they took their card table out in the yard and played late into the evenings. They had lots of fun. Emerson died in 1961. Hazel lived in her house as long as she could, then at North Fair for eight years, in Long Term Care at Clarke County Hospital, and at Steele’s Guest Home. She died at Osceola Leisure Manor in October 1994. “We are so grateful that her mind continued to be clear until the very end. She took pride in her keen mind."

Gloria went to Knox Township School #4. She walked to school except when the neighbor boy carne with his pony or her dad took her. She remembers several of her teachers. Her first was Margaret McHarg Fenn. "It is interesting that Mom was a teacher and she went to school to Rose Dutton, who was Arden Dutton's mother. Arden Dutton went to school to Mom, and I went to school to Arden."

Gloria went eight years to country school and four to high school in Osceola. She was only 12 when she enrolled in high school and her parents thought she needed supervision, so Grandma Thurlow moved to town so that Gloria could stay with her. She graduated in 1942.

The other outstanding event was that in 1942 Lowell realized that his draft number would be coming up. He remembered what his dad had told him about his experiences in the Army during the first World War. Sleeping in mud holes _didn't appeal to Lowell, so he enlisted in the Navy. He hadn’t any idea what he was getting into, never even having seen a big body of water. The trainees spent a brief period of time at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. They were told what the Navy was, were given shots, and taken to the Brooklyn Navy Yards. The next morning they were out on the water. Having gone aboard ship at night, Lowell didn't know what the ocean looked like until they were out on high water.

Lowell was on the destroyer Mayo, which they called "The Tin Can." From there he volunteered to hunt submarines and was on a 1050 sub-chaser. A ship had to accompany them in order to refuel the vessel. They couldn't cross the ocean on their own. In the Caribbean they went through a hurricane. "We didn't think we would make it through that experience. Our little boat nearly turned over time after time. We lost everything on the top deck of the boat-life boats, guns; she even lost all her paint." The people back home heard about the storm but didn't know that Lowell was in it. "It wasn't that we didn’t write but our letters were censored. They cut out big chunks of information." Gloria doesn't remember ever getting a whole letter.

Lowell said, "We never did hear much about what was going on. They said, 'You, you, and you, do this' and we’d say 'yes.' We were on a battle wagon for a while. It was pretty ridiculous that we had to change uniforms three or four times a day - from whites to blues and back again. We didn’t see anybody but it was the 'uniform of the day.' Once in awhile it would be announced that an officer was on board. We might not know him from Adam, but he was aboard!

"I was on a crash boat to take soldiers into the beach. At that time we were stationed in Panama and the Galapagos Islands. There has been a lot of talk about them lately. The one we were on was quite an island. There was nothing there but rock. A screen wire runway had been laid for planes to land on. There would have been no other way. That was the island where they stopped with the injured, refueled the planes, and went on to Panama. I was taken to Panama one time. I had blood poisoning, possibly from bad water. I thought I was going to lose my arm or at least my hand, but I came through it all right.

"The island did have one other feature - iguanas. They were interesting little creatures, very friendly. They would come out from between the rocks and sit on our legs.

"We had a famous guest while we were there - First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to see the base. All us men were in shorts, but she wasn’t offended. I was among those who were to be on watch, guarding her tent overnight. She came out and said that wasn’t necessary, she would be all right. But of course we had orders to be there. When she left the next day, she asked me and two buddies to take her back to the plane.

"We had one confrontation when we went over to the African coast and to Casablanca to deliver men and supplies. The Japs came right in at us. The skirmish didn't last long but they worked us over. We left provisions for the servicemen we were leaving there and came home on a diet of beans."

Gloria told that one day when Lowell was in Panama, he was helping refuel a Merchant Marine ship and someone from that ship said, "Lowell Cochran." It was Willard Johnson! They were really glad to see each other. "Willard wrote home to Lowell's mom to let us know where he was. Before that, we had no idea."

During this time, after Gloria graduated from high school, she went on to junior college for a few months and began working part time as secretary for A. Z. Smith in the insurance business. His office was on the second floor, above where Flowers N'More is now. When she decided she would prefer working full-time, she went to Des Moines to get a job. In those days ladies wore hats, and Gloria went to work at The New Utica, as bookkeeper in the millinery department. One of the rules was that all female employees must wear hats except when in the office. She lived with her dad's cousin and husband, and then moved in with three other girls, one of whom was Irene Fuller.

While Lowell was home on leave in March 1945, he and Gloria were married at the MP (Methodist Protestant) Church. Gloria had grown up in the Lacelle Methodist Church, taught the junior high Sunday School class, helped with Bible School and Christmas programs year after year, and, of course, always worked on the annual God's Portion Sale dinners. The Lacelle church did not have a minister at the time Gloria was a freshman and ready to be baptized, so she was baptized in the Osceola Methodist Church by Rev. Brooks.

In 1945, the minister at the MP church in Osceola was also serving the Lacelle church. There were very few rock roads in those days, which complicated the wedding arrangements. Both families lived on mud roads, which just then were too muddy for the wedding to be held in the Lacelle church. The roads had partially frozen the night before the wedding was to take place. Lowell drove the car to the highway and walked back home. He and his family rode in a high-wheel wagon to get back to the car. After the wedding, Lowell and Gloria took his parents and sister back to the wagon and then went on to Des Moines for their brief honeymoon.

The Utica had to hire someone else to take Gloria’s place during the month that Lowell was home. When she went back, they let her sell hats. "After a while, I applied for and got a job in the shipping department at Woltz' Photography Studio. That was a fun job."

In July of that year Lowell was transferred to Washington State Quilliute Air Base. "He had found a trailer for us to live in, so I went to Washington on a bus. It was the very first time I had ever been out of the state, and Mom thought for sure something was going to happen to me. It was a long ride, but I picked up a lot of friends on the way. In Butte, Montana, I met a soldier who was very helpful. The buses were loaded beyond capacity so they let service people get on first. The soldier had been on the bus earlier and knew I was going to meet my sailor husband, so he told me to stand beside him and he'd get me on. There were lots of people, who didn't get to board, but because of his thoughtfulness, I did, and I really appreciated it.

"We changed buses in Seattle, and went across the Sound. There was a bunch of sailors from Quilliute, and when they found out where I was going, every little town we came to they would say, 'This is it.' Of course, it never was. When we got to Port Angeles, they sat right there until I got off Lowell was there to meet the bus. It was so good to see him! We arrived about noon, but I was so tired that I lay down and went to sleep. Lowell said, 'I thought we'd have lunch,' but I was dead to the world. Lowell went to lunch without me and I slept until 10:00 that night.

"We were to live in a logging village called Forks, which was our home from July to October 1945. One morning Lowell had gone to the base, came back home, and announced, 'I'm going to get out of the service.' He knew he had enough points but didn't know it could happen that fast. There was a stipulation that he would have to be in the reserve, but as it turned out, he never did have to report.

"Trains were on strike at that time so we had another bus trip. I was pregnant and we decided to stay over in Butte, Montana. It was the best decision we ever made. Montana is a mountainous state, the roads were slick, and the bus we left went over the side. It was an indication that we are being watched over.

"It was good to get back to Osceola! For awhile we lived with Lowell's folks, then with mine, and then fixed up a one-room house on my folks' property. It was a house that Dad and Clyde Siefkas built, and after my grandfather died, my folks and I had lived there until I started to high school. At the last of February 1946, Lowell and I moved into a house owned by Franklin Kidwell, east of the folks' farm.

"In June 1946, our baby boy was still born. He had gone past term by a month and was large- 9% pounds. There simply wasn't room for him. In these days they would have performed a Caesarian section, but at that time they didn't know what to do. Also in those days they kept mothers of newborns in the hospital for a week or more, so I was still in the hospital when they had the funeral. Rev. Lloyd Latta had the service. The baby is buried in Babyland in Maple Hill. He was our only natural child, even though we regard Bill as our own.

"Bill was two years old in 1945 when he was adopted by Dad's first cousin. That cousin was close to my folks' age, whereas Lowell and I were about the age Bill should have for parents. His folks and mine were very good friends, and they often came from Des Moines to visit. As soon as he was big enough, Bill began coming to our house. We'd see him coming, running down the road as fast as he could come. Every year he would stay all summer. In the fall he would beg, ‘Can’t I stay here and go to school?' And every year we would have to say, 'No, Bill, you can't. We'd love to have you, but you must never let your mother hear you say that.'

His dad died in October of the year my dad died. Later his mother died with cancer, and from then on we were Mom and Dad. Bill married pretty young, and he and his wife had three really nice kids, Denise, Mike, and Corey. Bill and Pat divorced and he married Tina. Now he has a happy marriage and the children are doing well. They have children, so we have five great grandchildren, whom we see three or four times a year.

"Denise and Randy live in Des Moines. They have one little boy, Riley. Mike and Dawn live in Pleasant Hill and have two children, Jade and Wesley; and Corey and Cindy live between Kalona and Washington, Iowa. They have two children-Cody and Katie. All the parents work and lead busy lives.

"Bill is really good about having us all together on holidays and in between. On the Saturday before Easter everybody gathered, and we were invited, too. Bill had everything planned, including an Easter Egg hunt and cooking on the grill. It was lots of fun.

"Bill insisted that we have a celebration for our 50th anniversary. He asked Lowell's sister, Darlene, and our good friend Madelyn Loghry, to help with the guest list and pictures. We had gone to Mesa, Arizona, but he got busy and planned to surprise us. There were people who said a few things we didn't understand, but we didn’t pay much attention and really were surprised. Judy Miller, the United Methodist pastor, was in England when Mom died, so Neville Clayton had done her service. Bill was very impressed, so he called upon him to officiate while we renewed our vows. Judy was back for the special day and she did a prayer. It was very nice.

"We lived in the Kidwell house for two years then fixed up the house at the place west of there, where I was born. We lived there for eight years. When the folks moved to town in 1955, we moved to their house, and in 1957 we bought that farm of 233 acres. "Later we bought the place where Lowell's grandparents had lived. There were 80 acres, which Lowell had farmed several years. Those acres were a Century Farm, and the land where my folks lived had been in the family for almost a century when we sold it. This brought our property to a total of 323 acres. We moved to Osceola on March 12, 1992, and have lived ever since at 820 North Main, Apartment #6.

"During the years, I have worked at various jobs-at Bond's Jewelry for over three years, and at Job Service for over six years. That started initially when the expenses of farming were greater than the income, and Elva Downing asked me if I would be interested in working for Job Service. At that time it was a Green Thumb Program, and there were income guidelines for employment. I didn’t even know what Job Service was, but the more I thought about it the more interested I became. When I first started we immediately became very busy because we took all the applications for the Jimmy Dean factory. A couple years later I was going to have to quit because our income was too great. However, without my asking, a lady in Corning and I were each offered a half-time job. We were the first ever hired from Green Thumb by Job Service. I worked something over four more years for Job Service, and then retired in anticipation of doing some traveling.

"It might be a bit of an overstatement but I'd say that Lowell and I have had something going every day of our 56 years of marriage. We have had a lot of fun. We both loved to dance, and we went somewhere every Saturday night - to the Eagles, to Millerton for their Country Music Jam Session, or to a dance hall at the Junction south of Humeston. Lois and Oral Eddy, Dale and Madelyn Loghry, and Lowell and I were always ready to go. It had to be pretty icy or cold to keep us home. Now we have fun sitting at home watching television, but when we hear dance music, our toes still start tapping.

"We enjoy checking out eating places. We eat at the Meal Site nearly every noon. We have discovered the Peru Bar and Grill has the best tenderloins anywhere, and we like to go there. We were there this winter when I took a spill. Men were working on the side of the street trying to clean up ice and water. One of them remarked that by morning it was going to be slick as the dickens and said, 'You be careful. It is really slick.' He was right. I was using my cane, put it down in front of me, and it didn't hold. I fell flat on my face. Broke my glasses. It was disgusting! Here I had waited until winter was about over and then did that. I sat up and got my wits about me. I knew I needed to get to my feet or I'd slide even further. I also knew that I had to be able to drive home. Lowell doesn't drive after dark.

"Through the years, we have had some health problems. Lowell was found to be diabetic in 1975 and me in 1981. That year I had a hysterectomy. There were beginning signs of cancer, but they got it all. I didn't even have to have treatments! The Somebody who has been watching over us in all our crises was with us also in January 1994. Lowell was getting ready for bed when he suddenly had a pain. Just about that time the phone rang. It was Bill checking in. As I was hanging up, Lowell said, 'I have a pain in my chest. I am going out to sit in my chair awhile.' I followed him and discovered that he wasn't sitting, he was walking. I said, 'Where is your pain?' He put his hand on his chest and said, 'Right here.' I said, 'Do you suppose it is your heart?' He said, 'I don't know.' I asked, 'Do you think you should go to the hospital?' He said, 'I don't know,' but in about a minute he said, 'Let's go.' He actually drove part way but then stopped and said, 'You can drive.'

"When we got to the hospital, the door that was usually locked was open, and shortly, there stood Dr. Wilken. He didn't know we were coming, but he was there just as though that was where he was supposed to be. Tests that had to be sent to Des Moines were taken, and I went home for the night. The next morning it had been determined that the situation was serious enough to warrant Lowell's being taken to Des Moines by helicopter. It was too cold for that so he was taken by ambulance and I went with him, knowing that Bill would bring me home. An angiogram was done on Friday. It showed there had been some damage, but it was considered wise to wait for the surgery, which was on January 17. He was in the hospital for about ten days. Sometime later he commented that we surely didn't have cold weather that winter. It had been 25 below on the days I was traveling back and forth, and the wind chill much lower. For him it hadn't been cold!

"Exactly three years later, on January 17, I had surgery in Iowa City for an abscess from which gangrene developed. As soon as Dr. Wilken saw it he sent me to a gynecologist in Des Moines. That doctor was alarmed and told Lowell, 'This has to be taken care of immediately! If you don't do it now she will be dead in two or three days.' He referred us on to Iowa City where they had the best surgeons for this problem, and said they would be ready for us. Lowell drove me there at once. Sure enough, when we pulled up to the hospital, attendants met us with a wheelchair. We wondered how they knew about us and were told that the highway patrol had informed them.

"From then on it was hectic. I started to fill out a form, but they came to put me in an examining room. While they were getting me ready for surgery, I heard someone say, 'She hasn't had her chest x-ray,' and someone else said they would by-pass that- my other vital signs were good. They took me to surgery immediately. The operation took about four hours, and when I woke up in the recovery room, a lady doctor said, 'I have good news. They didn't have to go as deep as they feared.' I found out later how dire the consequences could have been if that had not been the case.

"I discovered later that I had the top surgeon, teacher of this very procedure in the college. I was there for 15 days before it was determined that skilled nursing would then be adequate. I came back to Clarke County Hospital for an additional 16 days, with several trips back to Iowa City during that time. On May 13, 1997, the doctor dismissed me saying, 'You're out of here, but if you ever need to see me, call me day or night. My name is in the book.'

"We had another scare on Easter Sunday, 1999. We were at Lowell's sister's home and after lunch were sitting at a card table playing dominoes. All of a sudden, I fell off my chair. It was cardiac arrest. Lowell did CPR (Coronary Pulmonary Resuscitation), which he had learned in the Navy, and had me coming around before the ambulance arrived. I was in Methodist Hospital in Des Moines for four days while they did all kinds of tests on my heart, lungs, checking for diabetes complications, but the final conclusion was high potassium- the level was eight, which they told me is high enough to stop the heart. It was such good news when the doctor said, 'I find absolutely nothing wrong with your heart.' I had taken two Dyazide tablets a day since 1981. At that point they changed the medication, and I have been fine ever since!

"Life has been so good to us! We have each other, a loving extended family with Bill and Tina and their children, good friends, and the ability to come and go as we wish. We are most grateful!"