From the country to the city
Published on January 6, 2025 at 11:10am CST
View From The Cab
By David Tollefson, Columnist
Back in January of 2019, I wrote a column entitled “From City gal to Farm Wife,” after my wife Aileen died of Alzheimer’s in early 2019. After growing up in Starbuck and being in the same high school class, (and ignoring each other in high school, but later decided to get married) I was the country guy that had eight years of country school, and then four years of high school. She had all 12 years in Starbuck elementary and high school. After that she graduated from Concordia College and became a teacher (which she was born to be, for sure). After marriage, she taught full-time for a few years, and when the three kids came along, became a very successful substitute teacher at Starbuck elementary, and occasionally in high school, for Mr. Flom, Mr. Katzenmeyer, Shirley Anderson and others.
In early December we lost our firstborn child, Kris, who was born Jan. 5, 1968. So this will be a tribute to her, since she was right away a farm girl, drawing pictures of horses at an early age. As her obituary in last week’s paper mentions, she had two memorable horses: first a Shetland named Charlie, and then a quarter horse named Teardrop.
She also, at an early age, drove tractors for picking rocks and hay bales to be stored in the barn for the cows. In her college years at Concordia College in Moorhead, she came home occasionally during harvest and even drove my Gleaner combine at the time while I was milking cows. Quoting from her obituary: “Even though her life took her away from the farm, she loved it. Her childhood showcased her creativity and kindness; she had a talent for art (chalk drawings still hang in the family home), singing as a member of a local high school choral group (Buck n’Aires) and balanced her dependable nature with humor, as seen in moments like cleverly outwitting a haggling customer at the family’s sweet corn stand.”
“In her teenage years, Kris worked at the Starbuck Dairy Queen and later as a bank teller. She was passionate about volleyball, playing competitively in high school. She also earned the title of Pope County Dairy Princess, representing her connection to the farm and community. After graduating from Starbuck High in 1986, she attended Concordia College in Moorhead, MN earning a bachelor’s degree in 1990 in Business Communications.”
“Post-college, Kris moved to Minneapolis and began her 25-year career with Marriott, starting in the event planning department and eventually becoming part of a team developing computer-based internal training programs. This training development position required a relocation to Marriott headquarters, moving to Arlington, V., in 1995. She always kept an eye towards the family farm, often bringing others there to experience the lifestyle and even convincing her friends to come there and her hometown for her wedding in 2003.”
As a preview to her organizational skills at Marriott, Kris while at Concordia at least for a couple years, helped organize the Homecoming program at the time of the Homecoming game.
For me, I’m going to miss her computer skills. She helped me with my computer when I had trouble writing these columns.
Occasionally if she could not do the solutions over the phone, she would get Brian on and they would take over my computer from their home in Virginia. I could see the curser moving around the screen of my computer while I sat at my kitchen table watching how they solved the problems of the day.
I will sorely miss the trips Kris, the girls, and Lucky drove to the farm. She would cook up a storm, baking lasagna, beef stroganoff, spaghetti, M and M cookies, and other goodies to be frozen for when I could get around to using them. There are still some frozen containers in my freezer waiting to be thawed.
And of course, there’s the annual Krazy Kake, first of all that Aileen would make for Rowan’s and my birthdays in February! When Aileen could no longer do it, Kris took over, and the cakes gradually got better every year (Aileen was a terrific cook, as many of you remember). Every year we would be at the Fuchs house to celebrate together. (Rowan and I share the same birthday.) Kris would make one cake to consume out there and another for consumption around Starbuck (that was, of course, if we were driving). Hauling a cake back on the plane wouldn’t be too practical.
So as we mourn the loss of Kris, we will forever remember how she blessed our family and our farm and also the Starbuck community.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Please contact David Tollefson with thoughts or comments on this or future columns at: adtollef@hcinet.net