Recipes for Living Robert Eugene and Mary Anne Bethards Rumley

Most people know Robert Eugene as Gene, but his mother called him Eugene so that is Mary Anne's name for him. There are few secrets between partners who have always known one another. While they were growing up they lived less than a mile apart in the High Point vicinity of Decatur County. Both went to country schools, although not the same one. They walked, as did all the youngsters in those days, but they went in different directions. Mary Anne went to the same school where her dad had gone many years before, "Spunky Ridge"; Gene went to one that was really Pleasant Hill, but it was known as "Growler." Mary Anne could only speculate as to why that name had been given. She doesn't remember the reason precisely. Like some others who have lived for several decades, she refuses to attribute memory loss to growing old but is amazed at how much there is to remember. If occasionally the mind goes into overload, it shouldn't come as a surprise.

Gene was born to Roy and Helen Rumley. He has an older brother, James, and two younger brothers, Ray and Ron. Ray was diabetic and passed away in 1981. The family was typical of the area at that time. They farmed and were very poor, "like all the rest of us," was Mary Anne's observation. Roy resisted change and long after other farmers had invested in tractors, he continued - until the later years - to farm with horses. He was a very pleasant man, who always had something fun to say. He liked to remind his boys that they were only worth $100 because he had paid $25 apiece for them to be born. His way of expressing humor was very different from what Mary Anne had been accustomed to in her home and, until she became familiar with it, she says she spent many hours with a red face.

Hard times and hard work never have kept boys from creating their own fun and/or mischief. Gene and his two brothers get together once a month in someone's home and their conversation often consists of reminiscing about those years. From rolling tires around the yard and on the dirt road to swinging from the rafters in the bam, they were never bored. They remember a day when their dad was plowing and one of the boys threw a rock that was intended for the horse but hit their dad instead. He gave them a reason to remember that. There was a great deal of togetherness because all four brothers slept in one bed. One would say "Turn" and they would all have to turn together.

After eighth grade, Gene went from "Growler" to Leon High School. That increased his walking distance to about four miles each way. There was no bus transportation in the area where they lived. There were 58 in his class who graduated in 1950. This year, 2000, will be their 50th reunion. After graduation he worked for and lived with the John Stone family on their farm northeast of Leon. It was a great place that he enjoyed partially because of the children. Gene has always loved children. Tom was a baby when he moved there and David was born later. The boys are grown now and make known how much they think of Gene when they run onto one another in Leon. Gene worked there until he and Mary Ann were married in 1952.

Mary Anne was born in Decatur County to John and Elsie Bethards. She has two older brothers, Dwain and Denzle, the latter name was one that Elsie had seen on a mailbox. Dwain was always called Dwain but Denzle became Denny. These were the Depression years and John continually looked for a way to provide the best possible living for his family. For that reason they moved to Des Moines for a very short time. Gene and Mary Anne's children get tired of her pointing out the house where she used to live on Army Post Road, but she is surprised that it is still there after much of that area has been bulldozed and renovated.

John operated a filling station on Southwest Ninth Street. He left for work before the children were up in the morning and returned after they were in bed at night. It didn't take him long to decide that was not the answer. Mary Anne can still hear him saying, "Elsie, this is no way to raise a family!" They moved back to southern Iowa. For awhile they lived in Clarke County and Mary Anne started kindergarten at Lewis School east of Osceola. Lois Ewoldsen Liggett was her teacher. That, too, was temporary and they moved back to Decatur County to the farm south of High Point. There is not much left now of the home place. Mary Anne was still in kindergarten when they returned and she attended Spunky Ridge.

People in the Osceola United Methodist Church who knew Elsie after she and John retired and moved here, will not be surprised that Mary Anne remembers her mother as being very kind and that religion played a big part in their home life. They attended the High Point Methodist church each week. Elsie would bake a cake and prepare a chicken each Saturday so that the basics of the Sunday meal were ready. Eugene's family's denomination was the Church of Christ, but he did attend the Methodist Church at High Point occasionally. Mary Anne recently found her baptism paper which indicates that she was baptized in December, 1941, along with the entire family except for Elsie who had already been baptized.

Elsie was never a strong person, always plagued by asthma, and lack of conveniences the present generation considers essential increased the physical strain. As was generally true in that area at that time, they had no electricity or indoor plumbing. There was no central heat. In the winter, some people heated rocks to put in their beds. Mary Anne heated irons with which they did the family ironing and took those to bed with her. Her brothers' room was so cold that they could see their breath. Elsie made all Mary Anne's clothes until she was in the eighth grade, when her mother went to town and bought her a dress. "Mother was proud. She wanted us to look nice."

The family depended on food from a large garden and orchard, from which Elsie and Mary Anne canned many quarts of vegetables and fruit. Mary Anne remembers that there was an occasion when they were going on vacation to visit her grandfather's sisters, whom they had not seen for many years. To take care of work before they left, in one day they canned 110 quarts of tomatoes, green beans, pickles, and peaches. Then, Mary Anne recalled, "We would have had to carry it all to the cave which was a ways from the house. Dwain would have been married by then but Denny probably helped." Elsie remarked later, "Why did we wait until the last day?"

The strong sense of family predominates as Mary Anne tells about her home life. There were not separate members but one family. There was one car- the family car. Dwain bought a bicycle, which he shared with his siblings. Mary Anne remembers riding it to High Point for errands. The main business in that community was Saubaugh's Grocery store, where, in addition to groceries, one could buy gas and get a hair cut. There was also an ice house. Families sold eggs and cream there, trading them for groceries, gas, and, if there was enough left, an ice cream cone (probably 5¢). The latter was the children's hope, of course. They preferred that employee Ivan Mendenhall would wait on them because he gave the biggest scoops. He wouldn't scrape the edges.

The trading arrangement worked well. Elsie took 12 dozen eggs at a time and, by saving the proceeds over a period of time, she had enough to buy wall paper. People were accustomed to doing their own work and she and Mary Anne did the papering themselves, with Mary Anne doing the climbing. They had lots of fun doing it and a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when it was done. It couldn't be done in the wintertime because the walls were cold. Mary Anne believes there was probably no such thing as insulation in those days.

In addition to a loving, immediate family, Mary Anne had the advantage of grandparents who lived a mile away. She saw them every day. They were John's parents and "I thought there was nobody like 'Pappaw and Mammaw'. They always wanted me to sit on their laps, even when I was through high school- and I did it."

Mary Anne attended Spunky Ridge through eighth grade. There was never any one but her in her grade, and she was the only girl in that school except for a short while when one other girl attended. In those days the rural schools were under the jurisdiction of a county superintendent. Books were rented at the county seat- in their case Leon. Mary Anne supposes the rent might have been 50¢. They were turned in at the end of the school year but she still has and treasures one book, although she doesn't know why it would happen to be a geography book because she didn't really like that subject.

Mary Anne went to Garden Grove for high school. Dwain and his girl friend both took a normal training course and became school teachers. Mary Anne followed the same path and went on to college at Cedar Falls, expecting to be an elementary teacher. She remembers taking a check for $200+ for tuition, which seems impossible compared to what it is now. However, college was too much of an adjustment. She didn't even stay through her freshman year. "I never thought about cheating or doing anything we shouldn't do" but that was not the case among her peers. She had a roommate that smoked, which was something she wasn't accustomed to. Her father had smoked but never her or her brothers. The roommate and her friends soon realized that Mary Anne objected; but instead of honoring that, they would come to the room, open the transom above the door so the smoke would go out into the hall. "They probably made it through college and I didn't. I couldn't take that."

Mary Anne went back home and started working in the dime store at Leon. That was before the days when businesses or stores operated on a 40-hour week. She worked six days a week, and the store was open Saturdays nights, when farmers came to town to "trade". She made $18.25 a week, which figured to 35¢ an hour. There were no complaints, however. Employees were glad to have the work. At that time she could live on $3 or $4 a week. It would have been unthinkable for her to pay room or board and she didn't need to invest in a car because she drove the family car to work. Denny didn't need it because he worked on the farm.

Mary Anne and Gene were married in 1952. They moved to Leon and Gene worked for Dale Newman in a hardware store. While they were living in Leon, their three children were born - Tony, Marla, and Sheila. The family moved to Osceola in 1957, when Sheila was two years old. Gene went to work driving a truck for Walnut Grove Feed Warehouse and was transferred to Creston as manager of their business.

Mary Anne's background carried over into the way she and Gene raised their children. Meal times were special. The family gathered around the table, not in front of TV, and grace preceded the meals. Sunday was a family day which included Sunday School and church. On that day the girls didn't have other children over to play or go to anyone else's home. When they got a little older their favorite playmates were Jane and Lynne Lewis, Christy Saylor and Cindy Linder.

When the Rumleys lived in Creston, the children's favorite place to play was on their own big front porch. There are several stories associated with that porch. A minister lived upstairs and one day a transient came, thinking that he was knocking on the minister's door. Marla was more timid than Sheila and wouldn't have been apt to do this, but Sheila let him in. To say that Mary Anne was surprised to see this stranger with the girls is a significant understatement. She had a difficult time explaining to him that this wasn't the minister's quarters and she wouldn't be able to help. She was greatly relieved to see the minister pull into the driveway so she pointed him out and transferred the responsibility.

Gene always loved horses and has always had a riding horse. One time when he had a colt he brought it up on the porch and, with Sheila holding the door, the colt went on into the house. The colt took it well and simply looked around the unfamiliar space until Mary Anne made a strong suggestion that it had probably been there long enough.

For awhile when they lived in Creston, the Rumleys had the care of an eight-month-old baby. The mother lived in a trailer and one day when Gene walked by he heard the baby crying. He investigated and discovered that the mother was ill. When she recovered she got a teaching position close to her home town and asked Mary Anne if she would care for the baby. The expectation was that the mother would come for little Jeffrey but she abandoned him and he became a ward of the court until the Rumleys moved out of the county to Osceola. They had fallen in love with the child in that year and four months as they tend to do with all children they meet. In that experience, however, they learned what families must go through when they enter the foster care program.

The move to Osceola was largely in order that they could be nearer their parents. Gene changed employers and began working for the Department of Transportation, continuing until he retired in 1992. Mary Anne started working at the Clarke Medical Clinic for Drs. Armitage, Lauvstad, and Bristow. When a pharmacy was established in that facility, Mary Anne began working for the owner, Loren Edwards. She continued for 25 years before retiring while Terry Jacobsen was the pharmacist. Gene and Mary Anne retired within two months of one another. His desire to stay in touch with what the department was doing was satisfied by listening to the scanner.

At the time of Mary Anne's retirement, in the March 4th, 1993 edition of the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune, there was a tribute. Headline: "Congratulations;" Sub-heading: "Rumley retires after 25 years at pharmacy.

"Mary Anne Rumley didn't expect a week of remembrances during her last days at the Clarke Pharmacy, but that is what she got - along with garden seeds, jigsaw puzzles, Disney paraphernalia and other things to keep her busy after 25 years of working at the pharmacy. 'Unfortunately,' Mary Anne says, 'my birthday fell in the same week. So this all came at the same time.'

"She’ll miss meeting people, Mary Anne says. 'Especially older folks. I always enjoy trying to do them a favor.' After she settles into retirement, she plans to be back, volunteering her time, perhaps at Osceola Leisure Manor.

"She's also enjoyed learning new skills over 25 years, she says. 'We didn't have the computer at first. Terry Jacobsen brought all that in. Before that we had to record all the patient's records by hand. The computer made all that easier, but first you had to learn it. I was
about too old to learn.'

"Mary Anne's co-workers brought one type of gift each day of the last week, allegedly to fill up that free time they just know she's going to have on her hands. 'I've got to see all that free time,' she laughs, although she promises to plant all those seeds. 'I've had some good gardens, but I wouldn't call myself a green thumber.

"Mary Anne also has plenty of family to keep her and her husband, Gene, busy. Her mother, Elsie Bethards, lives in the area. And with Gene recently retired from his Iowa Department of Transportation job, they plan to enjoy more time with their children and grandchildren...

"Has being with different pharmacists ever been a strain? 'It's never been a touchy business, my being here and his being there,' Mary Anne says, 'Because I was here first'."

Mary Anne's parents, John and Elsie, moved to Osceola in 1971 and lived on Dewey Street before they moved to the Senior Citizen housing complex at 120 West Shaw Street. That facility was quite new when they moved there and Elsie's asthma was not as bad as it had been when they lived in older houses. However, she continued to be frail. John passed away in 1986 and, with Mary Anne's help Elsie was able to continue living in that apartment until1991, when she moved to what was then Osceola Leisure Manor. Mary Anne was a frequent visitor. She went several times a day, always in the late afternoon so that she could push Elsie in her wheel chair to the evening meal. Mary Anne was able to help other patients as well. Her mother also enjoyed Mary Anne pushing her for tours around the facility to see the other residents.

The Rumley children are now grown and married: Anthony Jo (Tony), Marla Jean (Garity), and Sheila Marie (Kentner). Tony lives at Pella and works for Central College. He has three children: Jill (Poindexter) works in Des Moines; Scott also works at the college in Pella. He married Heather Lipper last September (1999). The third child, Cari, also works in Des Moines.

Marla lives in Des Moines and works in the corporate offices of P.E.O. She has two daughters -Michele, who is a loan officer in Hills Bank in Iowa City, and Danielle, who is going to college at Iowa City preparing for a career as a psychologist.

Sheila and Roger Kentner live in Osceola and, with J.B. Hamilton, are presently involved in the very ambitious project of renovating the Lyric Theater. The 250 seats have just arrived, unassembled, with instructions yet to be found. They might be in one of the 201 boxes. As told in their life story in Volume 4 of Recipes for Living, Roger and Sheila also own and operate Osceola Drug Store. They have two children. Nichole is in college in Fayetteville, North Carolina, participating in the Professional Golf Management program. She also is majoring in business administration. Nathan is enjoying his schooling at AIB (American Institute of Business) in Des Moines. He, too, is majoring in business administration. He is home almost every weekend and works at the drug store.

Mary Anne remarked, "Those are our seven grandchildren and we love them so much! We have always followed everything they were doing. It seems strange not to have someone in high school and attend their activities."

The golden rule in Luke 6:31, "do to others as you would have them do to you" had been imprinted on a ruler when Mary Anne was in rural school and it was impressed upon her. She has applied it ever since. The attitude expressed in the newspaper article, that in retirement she planned to continue to "do to others" by volunteering, has characterized her current life. At the time of this writing she is delivering Meals on Wheels twice a month. She is on the Courtesy Luncheons committee at the Osceola United Methodist Church. She participates in the Clarke County Hospital Auxiliary's operation of the gift shop and is manager of the snack shop.

Eugene enjoys being a helping hand to anyone who needs it, particularly farmers who are not able to do the hard, heavy work that is involved. "Today he is hauling manure." In addition to doing for others, he loves the opportunity to be outdoors. Either singly or as a couple they often drive people who need transportation.

Gene’s love for horses is shared by his brother, Ron, who keeps them on his farm. Their herd has now expanded to include miniatures, beginning with the gift of a colt, Buddy, from Arden Davis, who had become unable to take care of him. The inventory now includes two more colts and two old mares, which are more in the nature of pets and raising them has become a delightful hobby. When Fancy was born she was only 20" tall and 20" long. She loves to be loved. Ron bought a cart and harness and this year Gene is going to break Buddy to drive.

There is genuineness about Gene and Mary Anne. They have made a significant contribution to the areas where they have lived, going about their lives with integrity and faithfulness to their commitments. They have laid a solid foundation for their children and grandchildren, whose importance in their lives is without question.