Mother’s Day is in the past, Syttende Mai is this weekend, Memorial Day is right around the bend and spring is finally here! There is something comforting in knowing that even though we expect the seasons to change, each season brings with it events we wait for year after year. We watch flowers bloom and annually receive invitations to weddings. I recently talked with Karen Rudie who despite the loss of her husband years ago still fondly celebrates their wedding anniversary, every year on May 23.
Karen, pronounced ‘karn’ in Norwegian, was born Aug. 11, 1923. She was baptized the same year on her mother’s birthday, Aug. 30 at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and is proud to have been named after her great-grandmother, Karen Elizabeth Hagen, who donated a stained glass window to the church. Karen was also confirmed at Our Savior’s, on June 5, 1938. Karen and her husband, Grant Rudie, Jr., met in kindergarten. They dated on and off in high school, broke up when they got mad at each other once in awhile, but always quickly got back together. She “kind of always knew” they would get married one day. She graduated from Westby High School in 1941, “the big year,” she said, when Pearl Harbor was bombed.
When asked what her parents thought about all of this, her traveling alone, getting married so quickly, and without her family in attendance…. Karen’s simply said, ”They didn’t have much to say about it,” because it wasn’t their wedding.” It took her a day and a half to get to Ft. Lauderdale where she and Grant married in a church, surrounded by seven of Grant’s sailor friends. After a few months in Florida, she returned to Wisconsin and Grant went to California. Years later, Karen reworked that wedding suit into a pretty little spring coat that was even worn this past Easter by one of her eight great-grandchildren, Lanie Kathleen Tainter. Karen also has seven grandchildren.
Grant went to pharmacy school after the Navy and took over the pharmacy that his father started. Karen would often help by cashiering, cleaning, doing the billing or whatever else needed to be done. In addition, she raised three daughters, belonged to the PTA and bowled in a league with special friends Hazel Anderson, Charlene Pederson and Gerda Aarness. Karen had fun but says she “wasn’t that good.” It was “a streak of luck” the night she actually won a bowling trophy. She was also very active at church, was part of the ladies’ circle, taught Sunday school, belonged to the church quilting group, and attended the bible study class.
Karen shared that cooking wasn’t at the top of my list, but “I kept my family alive,” she said. She had a large vegetable garden of radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, rhubarb, raspberries “and weeds,” but what her own family couldn’t use in any given year, she shared with friends.
Karen and Grant were married just shy of 60 years when he died on Aug. 6, 2004. They enjoyed many years of retirement, particularly their many bus trips with Kinky and Gerda Aarness, plus lots of trips back to Ft. Lauderdale during the winter. She showed me a favorite photo of a pelican she saw on the beach the year she and Grant went to celebrate their 20th Anniversary.
Winter may change to spring, but robins returning and lilacs blooming stays the same. Westby, too, will always be changing but we hope people like Karen, who work hard, have strong marriages, are good parents, and even raise gardens, will also be with us year after year. When I asked her what she did for excitement in Westby, she said “well, not much.” She had a pretty ordinary life, she told me. For at almost 95 years young, it is comforting to know that her sense of humor hasn’t changed a bit.
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| Karen Elizabeth Hagen Rudie August 11, 1923 – December 5, 2020 |
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