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Donald Victor Anderson
Born October 14, 1929; Married June 3, 1951
(Marietta Louise
(Susan) Pinkley, d. Feb 10, 1987):
Married July 1, 1988 (Vernita Faye Firestone Berry)
Children: Donna Sue Anderson Peters, August 4,
1952; Dean
Victor Anderson, July 16, 1953;
Dennis Eugene Anderson, April 26, 1955; Dwayne
Allen Anderson, February 18, 1957;
David Keith Anderson, November 11, 1967
I was born October 14, 1929, the second of
Reuben
and
Ruth Anderson's sons to be born in the home that Grandpa Victor
built.
It
was the season for flax harvest.
Returning home at 8 PM my dad was greeted by an excited 4
year
old Melvin with, "Mother
needs
you bad!" Since mother's
doctor was in Chicago, Dr. M.L. Morris was summoned from Pine
Bluffs
and I was delivered 20 minutes
later.
They tell me I was a colicky boy for almost a
year, not
giving my parents much rest. I did
find
comfort in my thumb, however,
through age 12 to be exact.
My education began at High Point, a small
country
school
about 1 1/2 miles from home. Most
of the time we either walked or rode our
horse, Lindy, to school. Many
tales and memories can be shared about that first school year--the
recess adventures and pranks
played on each other and our unsuspecting
teacher, Mrs. Phillips.
The next year I attended 2nd grade in Albin and
continued
there through graduation in 1947.
Basketball was my sport and playing
alto sax in the band and with my cousins was a favorite pastime,
too.
At age 12 I was put on the tractor.
From then on I was considered big enough
to do any and all farm chores, and became Dad's
"right hand man". Over the years I have learned to wear many
hats--mechanic, carpenter, plumber, electrician, mathematician,
financier,
livestock producer, fertilizer and herbicide expert--to name a
few. Farming today is not the simple horse and plow of
Grandpa's
time,
but it is diversified and complicated, even with our modern
methods and
machinery.
In the fall of 1947 I joined my older brother
at
John
Brown University, Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
There I met my wife, Susan,
an Arkansas gal.
After 2 years of college I returned to take
over
the
farming. Susan remained at school, graduating in 1951 with a
major in
Home
Economics and minor in Music.
During that time I built us a new home 1/2 mile south of my
folks.
We have lived in that home 33 years this June
3rd. Our four oldest children, Donna,
Dean, Dennis
and Dwayne are married and
we have 9 grandchildren. Our youngest
son, David, has just completed his sophomore year in high school.
I accepted the Lord as a lad at Grandma
Lundberg’s, and He
has blessed me many times over these past years, through the good
and
the not so good days. I have
served Him in the Albin Baptist Church as trustee, deacon,
vice-chairman,
Bible teacher, choir
member, youth sponsor, and Boy's Brigade Captain; also
as a member of the Rocky Mountain Baptist Conference Board of
Trustees.
My hobbies are hunting and fishing. Each fall
finds me
heading for the Jackson Hole area where elk, deer, moose and bear
have
been
my trophies. "The
big one" was caught last summer in Canada.
We have done same traveling, both as a family
and
as a
couple, including many of our 50 states, the Virgin Islands,
Puerto Rico
and Venezuela.
I am grateful, indeed, for my heritage, for the
opportunities I have had and the freedom to live and work and rear
my
children
in America. Thank you, Grandpa Victor.
- Donald Anderson,
1984
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