Family history, Phippen

Biography of Leonard and Grace Phippen

[excerpted and adapted from a speech given by Stephen R. May at the Phippens’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration, Oct. 9, 1994]

            Leonard was born on a farm in Greeley Township (northeast of Exira) to Thomas and Dagmar Phippen. He joined an older brother George (now deceased) and an older sister, Florence. When Leonard was two years old, his younger sister Evelyn (now living in Audubon) came along. In 1920, when Leonard was about 4 years old, their house burned to the ground and a new large house was built to replace it. Tommy (who now lives in Arkansas) was born soon after. Then it was not too many years before the family was forced to move into Exira and live with Dagmar’s parents. Three generations in one house!

            Leonard attended school in Exira and graduated with honors from Exira High School. About a year after high school he started a trucking business, living with his mother until the time of his marriage.

            Grace also had grown up in the county but quite a distance from Leonard. She was the eighth child born to Charles and Clara Newell at their farm nine miles northwest of Audubon. Grace joined oldest sister Alice (who now resides in the Friendship Home), oldest brother Robert (living in California), Lillian (now deceased), Helen (also in California), Hazel (living in nearby Hamlin), Sam (living in Jefferson) and Albert (deceased). But Grace was not to be the baby of the family for Raymond came along later. He now lives in Arkansas.

            Grace joined her brothers and sisters in attending country school, walking a mile and a half in all kinds of weather. After graduating from the eighth grade, Grace started to help out by keeping house for neighbors. There were no school buses to come past her house and they were too far from town to continue schooling.

            When asked how they met, neither were sure, but probably while walking around uptown on a Saturday night or in the local cafe--probably in Audubon. How long did they know each other before they decided to get married? They disagreed on that, too. But it sounds like their courtship lasted a year or two.

            They wed on September 30, 1944, in Kansas. Probably only their parents and Leonard’s sister, Evelyn, knew that they planned to marry. They traveled alone to Hiawatha, Kansas, found the old courthouse, and a judge administered the ceremony and his wife witnessed. They spent a few days looking around then returned to Exira.

            They lived for a couple of years in the home that Leonard’s grandparents had lived in and Leonard’s mother, Dagmar, was still living in for a short time--located between where they now live and the house that Randy Phippens’ now live in. Grace’s dad gave them a cow which for quite some time supplied them with milk.

            They got along with the old furnishings that had been left in the house. They started their new home by first putting in the basement and living there for several years. The building project moved on up, was topped by a roof, allowing them to occupy the whole house. That house was their home for about 45 years altogether. They have lived in their new home for about 3 1/2 years.

            Kenneth was their first child, born in 1945 at the home of Grace’s parents. Janice, Judy, Connie, Randy and Chuck followed.

            Kenneth, who now lives in Exira after having lived in Colorado for a number of years, has three children: Jeff, 26; Kristoffer, 18; and Jennifer, 16. His wife Terri passed away a number of years ago. Kenneth drives trucks for Phippen Trucking.

            Janice was born at her aunt Hazel’s house. She has worked many years for Hartford Insurance in claims. She is married to John Leo, who sells insurance. They live in Lorton, Virginia.

            Judy was born at a midwife’s home in Audubon. Judy now works for an insurance company. Her husband Arthur Ferreiria, whose family is originally from Portugal, is a carpenter. They live in Arlington, Virginia, and have three sons: Eric, 20; and twins Louis and Matthew, 19. All three are in college!

            Connie was born in Carroll at the hospital. Hazel drove Grace to Carroll that day since Leonard was too busy with his trucking business! One of Exira’s locals said to Leonard one day: “You don’t seem to think of anything but trucking. Why don’t you put your wife before your trucks sometime? He responded, “I’m afraid she might get run over!”

            Connie is now living in Carroll and attending Des Moines Area Community College. She has four children: Scott, 22 (the father of Grace and Leonard’s first great grandchild, Dylan, 1); Michelle, 20 (attending the University of Northern Iowa); Stephanie, 12, and Austin, 9.

            Randy was born at Hazel’s Guess that there must not have been time to drive Grace anywhere that day! Randy is married to Charlotte. They just recently finished remodeling and adding on to Grace and Leonard’s former house. Randy works for Phippen Trucking. Their children are: Michael, 16; Andrea, 14; and Mark, almost 13.

              Chuck was born in the Audubon hospital. He also lives in Exira and works for Phippen Trucking. He has three sons: Nathan, 13; Tyler, 11; and Tony, 9.

            Leonard started his trucking business 58 years ago. It is the oldest continuously owned and operated business in Exira, probably Audubon County and--who knows!--maybe the state of Iowa. When asked how things have gone over the years, he quickly states that it hasn’t always been easy: every kind of equipment breakdown, avoiding sleeping tramps in sale barns, guarding trucks so drunks wouldn’t steal the spare tires ... One night Leonard started a conversation with a passing wino. He told Leonard that he was no ordinary drunk. He had donated his body to science and working at preserving it in alcohol until they were ready to use it.

            He occasionally picked up hitchhiking servicemen (long ago before it was considered a dangerous thing to do).

            Leonard tells of loaning a serviceman some money and receiving it later in the mail. His trucks have traveled from Chicago to Idaho and throughout the Midwest. All these years he has mastered his own bookkeeping system and is not about to embark on the computer age. (If it works, don’t fix it!) He worked under the following theory: You can find whatever you want when you don’t want it by looking where it wouldn’t be if you did want it.

            I was thrilled as a kid to be taken along on some of the trips. I especially remember being introduced to the Omaha stockyards and being overwhelmed by their size.

            Grace has been a very busy mother and community supporter over the years, known and admired by everyone in Exira. She has been a good cook too. (This is her favorite cake recipe: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the toys from the countertop. Measure two cups of flour. Get the baking powder. Remove the kids’ hands from the flour. Get the baking powder. Remove kids’ hands from the flour. Put the flour, baking power and salt into sifter. Get an egg. Vacuum the sifted dry ingredients from the floor where the kids had fun sifting it. Answer the phone. Separate the egg. Warm the baby’s bottle. Help the oldest daughter with her math problem. Grease the pan. Answer the door. Remove 1/2 inch salt from the pan. Look for kids. Put mess in wastebasket and dirty dishes in sink. Call the bakery!)

            Yes, the children and grandchildren have been her joy yet kept her hopping. There were times that she also drove trucks of grain to the elevators or animals to slaughter. This experience made her the best candidate for first woman bus driver in Exira, which she did for a number of years.

            You can’t really say that Grace and Leonard have retired, but they have decided to slow down and smell the roses and watch the activity across the street from their new house.