Family history, Phippen

Evelyn Olga Phippen May autobiography

1993

I was born November 13, 1917, in Greeley Township, Audubon County, Iowa, on a farm my father, Thomas Phippen, owned.

            My mother, Dagmar Jensen Phippen, was born in Aalborg, Denmark, and was less than a year old when her parents emigrated to America.

            My parents were married March 22, 1911, at the home of Jennie and Wyman Harvey in Exira.

            My three older siblings are Florence (b. 1912), George (b. 1914) and Leonard (b. 1915); then I came along, then five years, later, my brother Tommy (b. 1921).

            The older children attended Greeley No. 9 School. Tommy and I didn’t go to school until we moved into town, but I remember riding to visit school in a horse-drawn sleigh, owned by a neighbor who was kind enough to stop and let us ride with him. It was a long ride, but we were kept warm with a large horsehair blanket.

            Because we only lived a quarter of a mile from the school, the teacher always boarded with us.

            When I was about 3 years old, our house burned to the ground. My father was burning some trash in the furnace, and sparks caught the roof on fire. The only memory I have of the fire is seeing a basement with broken fruit jars lying all over.

            My parents then built a new home. (Thomas A. Godwin was the builder.) But after some years, the country was in bad economic condition and they were forced to sell out. We moved into Exira and lived with my mother’s parents, Karen and Chris Jensen-Aaen.

            I started school in September, before I was 5. As I remember, my early years were quite uneventful. Adele Oldaker Petersen and I became fast friends before we started school, and the friendship continued until her death in 1991.

            I started high school in 1931. The country was really going into a deep depression, and war clouds were gathering in Europe. In high school, I took the Commercial Course and was a part-time secretary to the superintendent, who in those years didn’t have a full-time secretary. I also was a teacher’s aide in reading. I also did a stint as school librarian.

            I did some babysitting. I also was an usher at the local movie house until I was promoted to cashier.

            At that time I met my husband-to-be, Robert May. I graduated in 1935 from high school. We were the first class in Exira High to wear caps and gowns, due to no one having the money for proper clothes.

            After graduation, I continued at the theater, but during the day I was a secretary to the Comptroller, who was in Exira to take over the First National Bank after it closed and went into receivership. It paid depositors 100 percent but was not able to reopen.

            Bob and I were married May 5, 1938, in Greenfield, Adair County, Iowa, and moved to a farm near Casey, Iowa, to work for friends of ours, Roy and Rose Jacobsen. We were there a year, after which we moved to a room in the upstairs of my parents’ house.

            Our four children came along in due time: Charles LaVerne (born Dec. 7, 1938), Gloria Jean (b. July 29, 1940), Stephen Robert (born February 9, 1947) and Ross Allan (b. September 23, 1950).

            Bob did any odd jobs he could find, but work was almost impossible to find. The world was moving closer to war. Godwin Manufacturing started operating, building 24 hours a day toward the war effort, so Bob was able to start to work there.

            Bob was sent “Greetings from the President” to report for a physical for Army duty. He was examined but declared “H-F,” so he didn’t participate in the war.

            However, the call went out that there were carpenters needed in Lincoln, Neb., to build an air base. Bob, Dale Eagen, Fred Chase, Eagen Beck and Thomas Payne answered the call. They and their families moved bag and baggage out to Lincoln. At that point, Chuck and Jean were our family.

            [Chuck remembers taking the elevated train to downtown Lincoln; he also recalls seeing blacks in nearby Omaha and saying, “What’s wrong with those people? They must be coal miners; they’re all sooty.”]

            After coming back home, Bob and Thomas Payne started a construction business. After a few years, they dissolved the partnership and Bob started out on his own. After the war, business was booming, so he soon had a good business going.

            I belonged to two Federated clubs, two bridge clubs and was also assistant librarian for the public library in Exira for awhile. I, along with two other women, was instrumental in the purchasing of the building that is now called the Community Building. We formed the Women Action Group to take care of fixing the building. It needed a lot of work, for which many came to help. We also held lots of bake sales, etc., to raise money. I was the first president of the group.

            In 1953, we built our first new house. After a few years, we sold it and built a red brick veneer in the northeast part of town. While we lived there, we started a ready-mixed concrete plant, which Chuck managed for us. After five years, we were approached to sell our house. We then bought two lots next to it and built another brick home.

            On April 14, 1964, Bob died suddenly of a heart attack. For a couple of years, I ran a jewelry store in Exira. However, it soon became insolvent and I was forced to close up shop. In 1969, I sold the house and rented for awhile.

            Chuck left the family concrete business to take a job with Missouri Portland Cement. Stephen took over the management until his National Guard unit was called to active duty. It was sent to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. A short while later, I moved out there. I worked at a Target store for a few months, then I went to work at The Denver store.

            We moved back to Iowa in 1976 and I started work at the Friendship Home, where I worked for 13 years.

            Besides my four children and their spouses, I have 14 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and two step-grandchildren, who are much loved by their mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother: me.