Recipes for Living Marian Jesen Stearns

I was one of five girls born to George and Viola Jessen. I was born and raised in Murray, and went to school in the Murray school system from kindergarten through for the first five weeks of the 8th grade. Graduation included all the rural schools, plus Osceola and Murray. It was held in the old Christian Church, the one that burned down. There were a lot of steps and they took a picture of us on the steps. I still have the picture and I can pick out some kids I graduated with. (See pages 133 and 134.)

Dad owned machinery and hired out to do custom farming. I don't remember a time when my mother didn't work, also. She and "Dude" Johnson started the lunch program in the Murray school. She did wall papering for people and cleaned houses. She also cooked at the Maffett cafe in Murray. I remember her telling that one week she baked 66 pies and two cakes. When Snowdon's came to Osceola, we moved here, and Dad drove back and forth. At that time, he still did custom farm work as well as working for Sargent's Quarry and Earl Steele's Implement which was east on highway 34, where Schaff's place of business is now. Later, Dad became the custodian at the Methodist church, when it was still on the corner of Main and Cass Streets.

My sisters were Dorothy, Betty, Irene, and Martha. I remember one time, after we were grown, married, and had families of our own we took a trip and left the boys with Dad. When we returned, we asked, "How did it go?" He said, "I'll tell you, I did things I've never done before." I was the youngest, Martha was next so she and I were the last ones at home. We naturally were closer to one another than to the others.

Our folks liked music so they saw to it that we all had piano lessons, which we took from Lula B. White. We ran many errands for her. She always sent money with us and we had to count it back to her. I was so thankful I knew how to make change when I started working at restaurants. I wish people would do that today, but almost everyone simply gives back whatever change is called for by the machine.

We also took horn lessons from Dr. Fuller, the father of Dr. Leland Fuller. The father was a veterinarian but also taught band at school. He was shot in a bank robbery and had to get around in a motorized chair. When the band performed out of town, Dad hauled his chair in a trailer. Dr. Fuller could drive a specially equipped car.

My sisters and I were close, also, because we did fun things together. When there was snow in the winter-time, Dad brought out his big old scoop shovel and pulled us kids around on it. There was a whole bunch that lived up and down our street. The mother of one of the kids let us play in her back yard. We made a city that was nothing but dirt, and every time it rained it had to have been a mud hole! I don't know how she put up with us, but I never remember her telling us to go home or anything like that.

Across the street from us was Sadie Fivecoat. We went to her house and played a card game, Flinch, and a board game, Uncle Wiggly, and put puzzles together. She would do that with us for hours! There was Kate Lamoine, a deaf lady, who was a beautiful artist. She could draw anything, and she worked with us, too. She didn't have much money. I remember her floors were wide boards, no rugs over them. We cleaned her house, which was a lot more fun than doing it at home. We never bothered her place at Halloween. She died tragically. She was hit by a train as she was walking on the tracks and of course, didn't hear it. That's been close to 50 years ago!

However, we girls didn't have a lot of free time. The folks had big gardens and we worked those gardens! We picked all kinds of vegetables and canned them. We knew what we had to do when we came home from school and we did it. Sometimes neighbor kids helped us so we could get through faster and go play kick-the-can or whatever game was our interest. One time Mom told me when I got home from school to get the jars washed, because after she got off work that night, we would can apples. I washed the jars and she still wasn't home. I had canned apples before and knew what to do, so I decided to start in. In those days salt and sugar came in cloth bags that looked almost alike. I picked up a sack and canned a bunch of apples with salt instead of sugar. She didn't give me thunder. She just said, ''Next time be sure to look at the sack." That was pretty good of her because we didn't let anything go to waste, but I surely did then. We didn't even taste them. We had to throw them out.

But I consider we were better off than kids are today. We had to learn to do things, and we kept our bedrooms clean. Mother insisted on that. Today kids have too much stuff. I hear so many mothers complain their kids' bedrooms are terrible. My sisters and I talk about it sometimes, remembering how we had to keep ours, but we always end up saying we didn't have nearly as much stuff as kids do now. That makes a lot of difference.

We girls didn't want to move from Murray. We didn't want to leave our friends, our school, or the town. We were two blocks from the park. The Murray Jamboree used to be bigger than our July 4th celebrations, and all the Jamboree stuff went past our house. One feature was, we always had a wedding. Lil Clifton and Harold Miller were married one year at the Jamboree. Lil came over to stay, and the money her mother had given her was gone the first day. We took our little wagon and went up and down all the streets, picking up empty beer bottles. I don't know what we thought we were going to do with them. I'd never been in a beer tavern in all my life. I don't know if there was a deposit on the bottles, or any reason the men might buy them, but we needed money and it seemed like a good idea. Well, my dad caught us just as we were going in to sell the bottles, and he put a stop to it. He gave us the money and took the bottles.

Our home in Osceola was on Kossuth across from what is now East Elementary. The three older sisters were out of school when we moved to Osceola. My oldest sister taught school, and the other two were working in Des Moines, so only Martha and I were still home. Martha was in high school, which was on Main Street, where now there is an apartment complex. I was in junior high which was on the comer of Fillmore and Grant, where the United Methodist Church is. I don't know what I'd have done if Charlotte Kelly hadn't been there. She was a wonderful teacher and a lovely person. One Halloween, she dressed up as a witch and went over to East Elementary. I don't remember much about it, whether or not there was a reason, but I know I thought nobody but Charlotte Kelly would do that. Another teacher was Minnie Hertz and there was a man. I don't remember anything about him.

Martha and I both worked in restaurants and our mother did, too. During the day she was an inspector at Snowdons and worked a shift in the restaurant at night. That was our routine until I graduated from high school. I graduated on Friday and started to Beauty School the next Monday. I thought I wanted to be a nurse, but a girl I ran around with in high school talked me into beauty school. I've not been sorry. I lived at the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) while I attended Thompson's Beauty School, which was above Bishop's Cafeteria on Locust Street in Des Moines. The course required 2100 hours and it took me close to a year to complete it, after which I taught in the beauty school for two years. The timing was great because I didn't have to deal with what we called "machine permanents," that had a standard and metal curlers hanging down on wires. They were awful! My manager was Caroline Sheldon who emphasized shampooing. She said, "If they don't like the hairdo, at least they will like the shampoo." That's what I learned and that is what I taught. Many of my former customers still remark about my shampoos. I gave two sudsings. Almost everyone else gives just one.

Martha worked for an insurance company in Des Moines, where she met Ron Davidson. Martha's marriage to Ron Davidson was a second marriage for both. Her boys were from her first marriage. They lived in Oklahoma City where they had their own business. Ron died in November 2003. Martha is retired and continues to live there.

During my second year of teaching, John Stearns and I were married. I met him while I was still in high school. He was four years older than I, and had gone to high school in Woodburn. I met him at Ritter’s Cafe, which was where Steele Implement had been. I thought he was pretty neat. He was more mature and had more sense about him than the other fellows I knew. His actually is a story in itself. John was the 8th child, and his father was killed before John was born. Times were tough! There were no government programs such as we have now to help support families. They lived on a farm near Woodburn and John attended the Ottawa rural school for his elementary years. His mother was a school teacher, but I'm not sure how much she taught after the father was killed.

It would be impossible to mention the Stearns family without thinking music, because theirs was a musical family. The mother and John's sisters played the piano. Carrie (Edgerton), oldest, took over Mother's spot when she died. She played for church and Sunday school in Woodburn, and Carol (Keller) played for Bethel Chapel. Otis took honors playing the harmonica, and he also played the banjo. Harold played guitar and sang. There were two cousins, whose mothers had died, who spent lots of time in John's home. They remarked that whenever the family went anywhere, they were always singing. In addition to John's mother playing the piano, she also played the violin, which John had, and which I've kept.

John gave lessons to a couple little kids in Lamoni - a boy and a girl. I read in the paper this morning (July, 2006) that their dad had died, and the children are going to play for his funeral. I think that is great. We met these people one Saturday night at What Cheer, Iowa. John was playing for a money raising event and the kids' dad asked if John would teach them. They were on our doorstep the following Monday night. From then on, they were here every week. When we started going south, we'd be gone in the winter and back in the spring. They came every summer. They are good, smart kids. The boy has graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado. The daughter, Katie, graduated from high school a year ago. We took them to the State Fair and so many music events that many people thought they were our grandchildren. Katie told me that her brother and their dad were to leave for Alaska the morning the dad died, and Katie was to be married in two weeks. How sad! He was only 62. I've been noticing lately how young some of the obituaries tell about.

John was in the service when we met - actually, he was in the service twice, both times before we were married. The first time he went with Roger Grimm and Jimmy Wilson. I know so little about it because he didn't talk about his service time. I know his boot training was in San Diego because one winter we went to see it. He wished afterward we hadn't gone because they were getting rid of that base and it wasn't what he remembered. He was also in Japan, the Philippines and Marshall Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska, but I don't know any details. I do know, however, that John took his violin with him and got to play for some dances, I suppose when they were in port. I know some of the other guys took their instruments, too, because I have pictures of them playing on board ship.

When we were married, John was out of the service and working in Des Moines at Pittsburg Steel. We were married in the Christian Church in West Des Moines. It was neat that John's mother had played for the wedding of Clarence Klinker, the minister who married us. John didn't finish high school, so after we lived up here, he and Joe Reynolds enrolled to get their GEDs (General Equivalency Diploma). That is a tough course! I was glad I'd finished in the traditional school! One night after a test they announced they weren't going back. Francelia and I had a fit and said, "Yes, you are," and they did and got their GEDs. I'd recommend to any kid that they finish high school rather than get their diplomas the hard way.

We lived in Des Moines for awhile, until John wanted to start farming. We moved back to south Iowa. The farm house was not empty so we lived in Osceola. During this time I started my beauty shop in the folks' house. We claimed to be the only house in town that had two front doors, because the State required I have a private entrance. My customers couldn't come in the front door, and walk through a hallway into the shop. It didn't make any sense, particularly when it was not required of another shop in town. But that was their word to me, take it or leave it. I was going to look for another place and Dad said no, we'll put in another door, and that he did.

When we could occupy the house, we moved to Woodburn. That was the way we lived for about 10 years. I drove back and forth, got my shop started, and developed a clientele. I worked two nights a week and John went to a GI Farm School. During these years, we had a family. Doug was born in 1954, while we were living in Des Moines, Tony and Teresa were born 1955 and 1957 respectively, while we were living in Woodburn. After school was out in the spring of '65, we moved to the house at 303 West Cass Street in Osceola. The house plan was really good for putting a shop in the glassed-in porch on the east side of the house, but I decided it needed some work. I refinished all the woodwork. It was exciting to see what was under that black varnish.

It took some planning to operate my shop and do what I wanted for myself and my family. I bowled on a league when Clyde Reynolds had the alley, and I loved doing that! I had skated when I was in school, in the building where the Shipwrights had a skating rink and thought it was fun. In the 70s I did ceramics at Wetzler's shop on Shaw Street. When they closed it, Betty and I painted the items at our house while John was at Posse meetings or giving fiddle lessons, and Gene (Powell) was at Scout meetings. We gave them as gifts, and sold some in my shop for Lurene Brammer and black walnuts for Donnie Wilkens.

I didn't work such long hours when the kids were little because I wanted to be there when they left for school. But I tried to have things ready to put in the oven for supper before I started work in the morning. Before we moved to town I had baby-sitters - Coy Showers, and Lulu Wilson. Her husband was Ed Wilson, a carpenter who worked with John Huffman and Harold McConnell. Lots of times the kids would ride the bus to John's brother's house. It would be fun to have a movie of our meeting ourselves coming and going in those years. On Sunday mornings, for instance, John was superintendent of Sunday school, and his mother the pianist. They would pick out songs while I was doing her hair and getting three kids ready to go.

After we moved to town, if I had a few minutes between customers, I'd run into the other part of the house and do a little something. Then after 20 years or so I had my faithful Roberta (White). Whenever I had a day off, I'd have a list of things for me to do and one for the kids, and I'd promise - "When we get this done, we can go fishing." That is usually what we did and I hated to fish! We would fish from the bank, and later, when John could go, we had a boat. At that time, I started my days at 6:00 and sometimes I'd be in the shop until 9:00 p.m. I didn't have a lot of choice. Living cost a lot of money and if you wanted to pay your bills, you worked. Our parents taught us by word and example, if something is worth having, it is worth working for. For awhile we were paying for the house in town and still paying for the farm.

John ran for sheriff the first time in 1964. I didn't want him to, but they needed to fill the democratic ticket and he won. This was the article in the Des Moines Tribune, written by Nick Baldwin: "A farmer all his life, John Stearns, 34, has undergone a dramatic change in his way of life. At midnight December 31, he assumed the duties of Clarke County sheriff. To fill the office, Stearns has given up farming and he and his family are moving into town.

"'I intend to work full time as sheriff.' Stearns said. Running on the Democratic ticket, he defeated Kenneth Likes at the polls by a 28 vote margin. Likes had been sheriff 12 years. 'I didn't really expect to win and I even lost a bet to a friend who wagered that I'd make it,' Sheriff Stearns recalls. The final count gave him 2,086 votes to 2,058 for Likes.

"A friendly man with a ready smile Stearns lives with his wife and three children on a farm 10 miles east of Osceola. Stearns owns 260 acres and rents 240 more acres. He has hired a nephew, David Stearns, to take over the farming operation for the duration of his term. 'Although he will do the farming, I will still have operational control of the farm,' Stearns explained.

''Unwilling to take their children out of school at mid-term, Stearns and his wife are maintaining residence at the farm until the end of the school year. Then they plan to buy a home in Osceola and, possibly, rent the house in the country. 'I always kind of wanted to be a law enforcement officer and last February I decided to run,' Stearns said. He added, 'The duties of sheriff are a big change of pace for all of us but my work takes me out in the country a lot and I don't feel confined. I only hope I will make as good an officer as Sheriff Likes did before me."'

John was Clarke County sheriff for 27 ½ years, and I became involved as well. I cooked for the prisoners. I can assure you, I didn't make any money doing that! I thought I could just fix more of what we were having. If it was good enough for us, I thought it should be good enough for the prisoners. If I had food left over, I'd freeze it like TV dinners for John to heat. We ate left overs, too. When the state decided they had to inspect my kitchen, I said, ''no way!" My kitchen was as clean as my shop and I didn't have a dirty beauty shop. I suggested that John tell the board of supervisors, there were three of them and one of me. We could each take three months and all have a turn at it. I don't know if John told them, but it didn't ever materialize.

There was awhile I didn't have to cook for them. John told them, "You don't keep your cells clean, and if you don't keep your cells clean, you're not getting any food-just bread and water." That's what he meant and that's what he did. That wouldn't be allowed today but in his opinion, you have to make kids behave, and these were his kids. John finally contracted with the restaurant and now I think they get meals from the hospital.

I also did the prison laundry. It was another thankless job. They used the towels to polish their shoes, burned holes in the blankets, and ripped the satin off the edges. The blankets looked really bad but there was no sense in replacing them because they would do the same thing to new ones. To save money, whenever I could, I hung things outside, and I always tried to hang those things to the back, and things I didn't mind passersby seeing, I hung to the front. One day the Schwann man came and wanted me to buy from him. I said I would look at the book, but he never came back. He probably thought I couldn't afford it.

Lots of interesting, exciting, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, things happened. There would be times I'd be called at night when they arrested and had to search a woman. In order for the officers to protect themselves, they had to have a woman there. I was "it." Sometimes I'd feel so dirty when I came home in the middle of the night, that I'd have to take another shower before I went to bed.

We had a boy in our home at Christmas time. He didn't have any place to go. His mother didn't want him to come home for Christmas, so he was with us. On Christmas Eve, he wanted to see his mother, so John took him. We bought him a present to give her. We helped him wrap it and I gave him a card. He wrote and wrote on that card. I don't know what he said. But when he and John got to the house, the mother didn't even get up to give him a hug! I couldn't believe it. She was living with a guy who John said didn't look much older than her son. We had that boy for a week or more. He had long hair, and before he left, he wanted me to give him a hair cut, so of course, I did. Every time he was back in town for a court appearance or any reason, he always came to see me. I don't know where he is today, but I'll never forget him.

One Thanksgiving, they picked up a guy for drunk driving and he had a little kid with him. John brought the boy to our house. I was making Christmas ornaments and he wanted to help so I let him. In the afternoon before he left, he wanted to show me his report card, which I thought was unusual. But I wondered what that man was thinking to drive drunk and have the little kid in the car with him. Things like that, or seeing somebody get a shot on television, made me glad I was talked out of being a nurse. The girl who did that did me a real favor.

Our family was horse crazy. Me, too, even though I didn't have time to ride when the family was riding. I did when I was a little kid. We'd go out to Carl Butlers' and put as many kids on a horse as we could without them sliding off the back end. We rode horses and even pigs when I was little. But as a family, we attended lots of horse shows, and showed horses. Teresa was princess and queen different years. She rode in the American Royal.

John had a horse, Prince, and all the kids rode him. They could ride him in a speed event and turn right around and ride him in a pleasure class. Beautiful horse! I helped them get ready. Walt Johnson drove our truck. There were lots of times the kids couldn't have gone if he hadn't driven. We put the gear in my car and Walt took horses and kids. Georgia (Johnson) went if she wasn't working, John went if he wasn't working. The kids wouldn't have gotten to go to lots of shows if it hadn't been for them. They were all in the Sheriff's Posse, which Buck Likes started. It had been going for two or three years before John took it over.

I managed my appointments so I could help the kids with their projects for Scouts, etc. and to attend all the events they took part in. The boys were in Little League, and when they were in high school, they wrestled and played football. Teresa managed, so she had to be there for practice and gather all the stuff they needed as well being there at the events. Girls from that time will remember Marie Kimmel who always went with the basketball teams.

John retired in July of 1992, because he wanted to spend more time with his brother, Harold, who was dying. I retired either in '90 or '91, not by choice but because of health problems. We started going south about 1992. We bought a 5th wheel with sleeping and cooking facilities - everything we could do at home, we could do in it. The first morning we went, I really hated to leave! I didn't know what we were getting into. Beryl and Laura came over, and Laura cried and cried. If I'd been John, I'd have kicked me out of that truck and gone off alone.

However, it was wonderful! We went to Parker, Arizona, on the Colorado River, about 30 miles south of Lake Havasu City. About 10 miles north of Parker, we were in the country. We were in a citrus grove! Beside our door was an orange tree - we could just step out and grab an orange. There was a lemon tree, tangerine, and a grapefruit tree - even a pecan tree. It smelled so good in the spring when they were in bloom! This was the area where the Jeffreys and Lundquists also wintered and we saw them a number of times.

There was a lot to do! Somebody was always having a coffee or we'd have company. We like black walnuts, and didn't have time to take care of them before we went, so we took them with us and had a nut-cracking party. John sat and cracked them and I picked them out. People came over and asked, "What are you doing?" It was a good way to get acquainted and some would help us. One fellow said kind of accusingly, "I was over here yesterday and the nut factory wasn't going."

Of course, all this suited me really well because my life's work involved people, and I felt really close to them. My clients had a tendency to confide in me and there was no way I would ever betray their confidence. That was the rule with John's work, also. Some of it would have made for juicy gossip and I told him not to tell me. Then when people tried to find out about something, I could honestly say I didn't know. In connection with my work there were times when the funeral home called me to do hair for the deceased. It seemed to me like my final tribute to these people, many of whom I knew so well.

A big part of our time down south was John playing his music. We went all over for contests, jam sessions, and dances. They formed a band and he played with them a lot. There was a golf course, if you wanted to golf, but John went out one morning, hit a bucket of balls, and decided that wasn't for him. No music to it. At first, we waited until after Christmas to go, and were there for three months. Later he heard me say it wouldn't be so bad if we went earlier and came home for Christmas. He rounded up tickets and we left the first of November.

John died June 9, 2004. He had heart surgery in 1988, and from then on, he had one thing and then another. He had several aneurisms, one behind his knee. He had two strokes, and back surgery followed by staph infection. The last spring when we came home, he was not himself. We thought it was because his blood pressure was too low and they couldn't get it up. The last time we took him to the hospital, his hemoglobin was six. They put him in intensive care, and I went home. I don't know why I didn't stay that night because I always did when he was in that unit, but for some reason, I took their word for it that he would be fine. They called in the middle of the night and said he'd had a massive heart attack, and before we could get there, he'd had another one. The doctors couldn't imagine why he was still alive. They gave him medication that was supposed to help his heart rest but that didn't work. Everything in his body stopped functioning. It really seemed pretty sudden. Low blood pressure doesn't seem death threatening, and on his certificate, they listed four reasons for his death.

We took care of all the details that go with the loss of a loved one. I stayed on in our home. The summer before he died, we had bought another 5th wheel with three slide outs. The first one just had one. We used the new one for three months and I sold it the next summer. I could have driven it down the highway but I couldn't back it up and park it or anything like that. Besides, there would be no way I'd be interested in going south without John. I sold our truck. The grandson loved that truck! He hated to see it go!

My life, of course, is quite different now. I've been alone long enough that my habits are getting more firmly set. The more I stay home, the more comfortable I feel there. I go out on Friday mornings and do the errands I have to take care of, and if I don't have to go somewhere the rest of the week, I don't. I am grateful that my children are here!

Doug has the Osceola Cab Company and Beryl works at Robinsons. They have two children, Laura and Brian. Laura is in college at Lamoni, works at the library and did work at the theater, so its closing (in 2006) is a personal blow for her as well as for the community. It is sad. I can't remember a time Osceola didn't have a theater and at one time we had two. These young fellows - Roger Kentner and J.B. Hamilton - put a lot of money into restoring it and making it a beautiful facility. Our culture in these times doesn't give much encouragement to "the little guys," who were once, within my memory, the very foundation of our society. (Update: this paragraph was written prior to the theater being leased, to open September 1, 2006.)

Brian graduated from Creston, is working for Dave Carlson, a carpenter, and part time at Wash and Weigh.

Tony married Sue Lathrop from Albia. They live on and have bought the family farm. John helped take down the old farm house, and Tony and Sue put up a beautiful new home. I told John if that house had been there, he'd never have gotten me off the farm. I loved living there! Tony always loved the farm and told some renter's children they had to move because we were coming back. At least he went back. Tony farms and is a horse Ferrier (shoes horses). Sue is a State Juvenile Probation Officer, works in three counties in a very demanding, emotionally taxing position. She is looking forward to retirement. Her story is in Recipes for Living, book 9.

John loved going to the farm to help Tony, and he also loved driving the cab for Doug. He loved going to do whatever Teresa needed to have done. She married Richard Paige and works in the auditor's office in Mahaska County. Richard is employed at Vermeer in Pella. They live in Oskaloosa and have three daughters. The oldest is Katie, who is married to Jesse Johnston; Jessica is in Bethel Baptist College in Ankeny. In the fall of 2006, Amy is a junior in high school. They are all very much a part of my life and I am grateful for them.

John and I were always proud of our children and enjoyed the activities they were involved in. When the grandchildren came along we were just as proud of them. We loved our family very much. John always enjoyed making people laugh, and he was good at it. He enjoyed life to the fullest. He loved his music and I always was right behind him in whatever he wanted to do with it or wherever he wanted to go. I was right from the beginning, ''He was pretty neat!"