Vertrees Hood is a geneology researcher of the first order. Not only has she traced her husband’s family “back to Adam and Eve”, she’s also completed a three-volume work on the families of her home church and can make a killer scrapbook that is three inches thick over the course of a single summer. “Everybody [...]
Just sitting around is not an option for Chuck and Reva Krell. After selling their business in Jacksonville, Illinois, and moving to Concordia Village, the couple is busier than ever. Recently, the couple returned from a three-week trip to China. “The opportunity to go came up when we were still living in Jacksonville and we [...]
For Jim Jacobsen, there was nothing better than seeing his students hard at work on a university campus school day. Jim taught at Western Illinois University for 29 years and spent another five teaching in public schools. His love for his students and his course subjects kept him energetic and active. “I taught drafting, technical [...]
A wife, a mother, and a cancer survivor, Thelma Dunger knows the importance of getting a helping hand. In her retirement years, she’s given more than her share of time and talent to support her church in its many ministries. And as Christmastime approaches, she’s busier than ever. “I am a part of the Lutheran [...]
If there’s a common thread in Nancy Lysen Kirtley’s life experiences, it’s making the world a finer place. Professionally, Nancy has devoted most of her life to improving people’s lives through medical social work, but since retiring, she works to bring beauty to her surroundings through her painting. ƒ “I worked with stroke victims, amputees, [...]
“I’ve been interested in art all my life,” says Frances Brown, in the Lenoir Woods Art Studio, daubing at a watercolor she’s been working on. “So after I retired, I started taking lessons.” And that’s how it started for many members of Lenoir Woods’ Art Club. No longer encumbered by working hours, many of the [...]
Whole generations of school children in Osage County grew up knowing Bud Redel. A schoolbus driver for 30 years, Bud had two big credentials to recommend him when it came to keeping his kids in line — he was a retired Marine, and he knew most of their parents. “I hauled kids whose parents I [...]
When Winona Thomas tells you that Heisinger Bluffs is the place for her, it carries a special significance, because she’s been just about everywhere there is to go. “I like to be in the thick of it,” she says with a wry smile. She’s seen every state in the union, and all seven continents. Her [...]
Retired teachers Otto and Delores Wirgau have traveled the world, seeing and experiencing things that many people can’t even dream. Originally natives of Minnesota, the couple got the chance of a lifetime to teach at an international school in Hong Kong during a monumental time in Chinese history. At this time, the Wirgaus were living [...]
Birdwatching is more than just a hobby for Jack and Ginger McCall — it’s a way of life! The couple even has a big wooden bird totem on their deck at Meridian Village that marks their house as being “bird-friendly” to draw their feathered friends closer to binocular distance. Jack commissioned their totem from an [...]
