Do Unto Others... Part 1

When Ken walked into a Catholic church for the first time, the first thing he noticed was "they all curtsied when the got to their seat. I sat and they knelt, the priest waked in and turned his back to us and started talking in a language I couldn't understand." He added that there was a lot of "up/down/kneel/stand" and he "couldn't understand any of it."

Gloria, though wouldn't marry a man unless he was a Catholic, so Ken decided to take instructions from Father Charles O'Connor and see what the Catholic Church had to offer.

Now Ken and Gloria Lee are both strongly committed Catholics who have done much to support our faith community. But... let's start at their beginnings.

Kenneth Eugene Lee was born on a farm about one mile north of Cambria, Iowa on April 23, 1933. The doctor charged $50.00 for his delivery fee. Ken's folks gave him $5.00 a month until the bill was paid. Ken's little sister, Maxine Arleta, was born two years later.

Ken's father was Audrie Kenneth Lee. He was one of the best shots with a rifle when shooting squirrels that Ken has ever seen. Audrie served in a tank division in WWII with General Patton. When Audrie went off to war, he had thick black hair. When he returned, after having seen some of his friends killed and other horrible things, he was bald headed and "never quite the same." Audrie was a farmer, but later he and Ken's mother moved to California where he got a job as a machinist for Bell Construction. He loved his grandchildren and often got right down on the floor to play with them. Audrie died of a heart attack at age 57 while he was at work.

Ken's mother was Gladys Esther (Harvard) Lee. She taught school for two or three years, but married women were not allowed to teach then, so she had to quit when she married Audrie. They never had much money, but Gladys "made things do." She always worked hard. Once, Ken recalls, when she had put on a pair of pants to work out in the yard at her father's place, several neighbors were shocked to see a woman wearing slacks instead of a dress and made sure to tell her father he shouldn't allow such behavior. It was Gladys who, when she heard Ken had become engaged to a Catholic, sat him down at her kitchen table and tried for two hours to convince him that he was making a big mistake.

Growing up, Ken went to several schools. His teacher at Doyle Center School, south of Murray, eventually became his aunt. She married Ken's uncle after he came home from the service. He remembers that it was Aunt Marge who took a scrub brush and "about took the hide off" of him and his cousin when they got into his Uncle Oren's cement tank that had just been tarred to seal it. The tar hadn't hardened yet, and so the boys were soon covered in tar--until Marge got hold of them!

Ken finished eighth grade at Dickervile School, east of Chariton. He and his classmates had to take their eighth grade exam at the Chariton Legion Hall. If they didn't pass that exam, they couldn't enroll in high school. Ken passed and left childhood activities of rolling a hoop with a stick and games of "Steal Stick," "Red Light/Green Light," and softball behind him. He still remembers those pleasant times in the school yard as well as the time he heard sleigh bells ringing and suddenly Santa, all dressed up, appeared in the doorway of his grandpa and grandma's farmhouse. Usually Santa gave him apples and oranges and other little inexpensive gifts, but when he was twelve years old, Ken was thrilled to get a rifle for Christmas. He still has it.

Christmas wasn't the only time his family gathered. Ken remembers them all getting together to take care of work on the farms, work like butchering hogs. His grandpa would shoot three or four hogs with his rifle, and then Audrie and Ken's uncles would tie each hog to a single tree by its hind legs, hoist it over and into a big barrel or cast iron tub of hot water, scrape the hair off, and hang it up to be opened and cut up. He also remembers thrashing time. A big steam engine ran the thrashing machine. If there was no dew in the morning the guys would steam up the engine early and then blow the whistle three or four times, letting all of the neighbors know to come early so they could get started.

Like many farm kids, Ken moved to town while in high school. His first two years he lived with three other guys in the basement of a house and then upstairs in Hatties Moseby's house. His junior year some other students' folks and his hired a taxi to take them to town. Finally, when Ken was a senior, Chariton began to offer school bus transportation.

In high school Ken participated in FFA and Glee Club and enjoyed typing and chemistry. He also liked going to Flatt's Drug Store after school and eating their delicious grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Somewhere along the way Ken became and excellent skater, and that talent led to his becoming acquainted with Gloria.

To be continued...