By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Nov. 21, 2021 — The big electronic sign at the entrance to the Greene County Fairgrounds last weekend flashed a happy message in Spanish: “Felicidades, Sr. y Sra. Rodriguez!” It was a salute to the wedding of Jacqui Casas and Edgar Rodriguez and their reception for 250 mostly Latino friends and…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER LOVILIA, Iowa, Nov. 6, 2021 – Here we are at the end of the 2021 harvest that likely is going to be one of the biggest in state history. International markets are friendly again, domestic market prices are good, and government support has been stupendous. Yeah, equipment and input costs are soaring,…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Oct. 17, 2021 — On the upcoming election day, Nov. 2, we voters in Greene County are being asked to vote on whether we want to re-authorize the gaming license that was granted by the State of Iowa in 2014 to Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation. That license allowed Grow…
COOPER, Iowa, July 27, 2021 — Carla Offenburger, an MVP kind of Iowa citizen from rural Cooper in Greene County, died at home on Saturday, July 24, 2021, at the age of 62 after a 12-year-long “dance with cancer,” as she often described it. She gave the incurable adenoid cystic carcinoma a real challenge, one that…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 4, 2021 — I can’t recall seeing a better stand of corn just before Independence Day than I did Friday evening, July 2, in the fields of our neighbors and pals, Doug and Karen Lawton, just outside our tiny western Iowa town. Tall, straight, lush and the prettiest green you’ve…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, June 29, 2021 – I’m history. And so are a lot of you out there – my fellow Baby Boomers, hep cats, hippies, yippies, yuppies and others. We are people who were born or came of age in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, three decades that changed the world, most…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, April 21, 2021 – Happy 30th wedding anniversary, dear Carla! We really celebrated it this year, didn’t we? Fresh flowers, lots of cards, peach ice cream and a surprise serenade last evening in our farmhouse living room from 10 members of the Chancel Choir at our Plymouth Congregational United Church…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Feb. 16, 2021 — My wife Carla Offenburger, after six months of hospice care here at home for her cancer, glanced at her reflection in a mirror when she finished showering on a recent day and said to me, “In our wedding vows, when we said ‘in sickness and in…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER SHENANDOAH, Iowa, Dec. 1, 2020 – Back in the 1960s here in my ol’ hometown, there surely must have been some wondering, “Whatever is going to become of the youngest Welty girl!” You want it short and sweet? In the late ’60s, Harriet Welty meandered half the world by herself, twice jumping…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Feb. 6, 2021 – For at least 18 years, during which I’ve kept a log of the books I’ve read, my goal has always been at least 52 books in a year. In the earlier years, I didn’t come close. But for the last 10 years, I’ve almost always read…
