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 By ELLEN MORTENSEN
Chief Assistant Editor
*Editor’s Note: In celebration of Older Americans Month in May, we will be featuring a series of profiles of some of our area’s senior residents. This is the second installment of that series.
Clarence and Mary Lou Carr recently celebrated 60 years of marriage. Those years have seen many changes; moves, jobs, births and deaths. But one thing has remained consistent - the couple’s love of children.
Not being able to have children of their own did not hinder this loving couple from having the opportunity to raise kids. They have adopted three, and have also raised a granddaughter and a nephew. They have also fostered a couple of teenage boys. Clarence grew up on a farm west of Eddyville, the oldest of seven children. He attended different country schools, but received most of his education at District 57 school near Buffalo, Neb. He was forced to quit school after the eighth grade to help his father, who had fallen ill, with running the family farm.
Near the end of World War II, Clarence was called in to the military, but could not serve because of a hernia. He was called back in 1949 to assist in the reconstruction of Japan following the war, and though he could have taken a farm deferment he chose to go to Japan and help.
He married his love, Mary Lou Weidner, the day before he was to report for duty with the Army; Jan. 8, 1949. Clarence rode a horse through a blizzard that blissful day, so he could get married before shipping out.
He was called back to the farm again after his father fell ill, and was honorably discharged from the Army. Clarence has worked on farms and ranches his entire life, except for a short stint driving truck.
An avid reader, he has continued to educate himself throughout his life. Just a few years ago, Clarence was awarded his high school diploma.
In 1953, Clarence and Mary Lou adopted their first child, daughter Linda. They say they were on the waiting list for about 3 1/2 years before finally being chosen to receive a child. Another daughter was added to the family in 1957, and in 1961 the couple brought home newborn son, Randy. The first two adoptions were through a Catholic orphanage in Lincoln, while the third was a private adoption.
The couple began their married life in a small two-room house between Sumner and Overton. A few years after they were married they had to move in to a larger house to get the baby. They began doing some foster parenting after their oldest child left home, and took in a nephew who lived with them for nearly four years.
“When we couldn’t have kids of our own, we made sure and surround ourselves with children for the rest of our lives,” Mary Lou laughs.
In keeping with the philosophy of being surrounded by kids, Mary Lou drove a school bus for Broken Bow Schools for 17 years. She says she will occasionally run into someone downtown who used to ride her bus and still remembers her.
“Now they are all grown and have kids of their own,” she says.
When their second daughter had a daughter of her own, Clarence and Mary Lou helped out as much as they could taking care of the baby while her mommy worked. However, a tragic road construction accident claimed the life of their daughter when their granddaughter was only 7-years-old, and the loving grandparents took over the parental responsibilities of their grandchild.
Now days the couple still enjoys the laughter of children, as they can often be found babysitting their great-grandchildren. A baby stroller sits near their front door, and Clarence proudly wears a cap displaying the logo “Kids need hugs, not drugs.”
“We love kids,” he says with a large smile.
The couple has always been active, and remains so. Clarence is going in to his seventh year driving the delivery van for Meals-on-Wheels, and Mary Lou helps out in the kitchen at the Prairie Pioneer Center.
“Through my years of delivering meals the people have changed,” says Clarence. “Some have gone into care homes, and some have died. You get attached to those people.”
Clarence occasionally misses country life, having spent so many years in the farming and ranching business. He also used to enjoy breaking horses, and did quite a little of that he says, as well as some amateur rodeo. He helped start the Hitch-N-Git driving club, and spent years driving a team of horses and buggy in local parades.
Clarence and Mary Lou say they don’t think of themselves as “old,” and have no intentions of slowing down anytime soon.
“We have to go to our great-granddaughters end of the year concert tonight,” Mary Lou says with a smile.
Clarence, however, is still reminiscing about breaking colts. “I wish I wasn’t 80, so I could get in the pen and break a horse,” he says.
Whether it’s volunteering at the senior center or babysitting grandkids, this over-80 couple is living proof that age really is just a state of mind. |
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