OGDEN BULLDOGS WIN STATE SOFTBALL TITLE

     LATE BULLETIN: CONGRATULATIONS TO THE OGDEN BULLDOG SOFTBALL TEAM - STATE CHAMPIONS.
     For the first time in the school's history, Ogden High School has won a state TEAM title. At Fort Dodge, the Bulldogs defeated North Linn, 6-1, in the championship game. North Linn was the state's top rated team and came into the game undefeated.
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     DESPITE PANDEMIC, BOONE WELCOMES PROGRESS   
     Despite the scourge of this pandemic thing, the Kornerman, a 75-year resident of Boone Iowa, is waking each morning excited about the future of our community. It seems to me there's about as much, or even more, positive activity right now in Boone town than, perhaps, in my lifetime here.
     Construction of various types seems prevalent in all areas......older homes, beyond repair, are coming down and new structures coming forth. It has to be a boon for Boone and, especially, those involved in the construction industry.
     The orderly move to the southern part of town by some established and several new business offerings is continuing.     
     Then, too, the recently, somewhat completed, Welcome Train and Greenspace projects are bound to have a positive effect. In recent editions we've told you, in some detail, about those projects and in this edition we'll detail another such venture......our Boone County Freedom Rock.
     Located at the northwest corner of the intersection of West Third and Main Street (yes, that's in the Courthouse block), the project was started in 2014 by Mysty Stumbo to honor her son, Sgt. Daniel Sesker.
    Sgt. Sesker, born in Boone in 1983, graduated from Ogden High School in 2001. He was deployed to Kosovo in 2003 as part of Operation Joint Guardian. In July 2005, he volunteered to join the LeMars based Troop C, 1st Squadron, 113th Calvary, which performed reconnaissance and surveillance missions.
     Between his tours of duty, he worked as a counselor at Woodward Academy and as a part-time police officer in Gowrie.
     Sesker, then 22, was killed on April 6, 2006, when a bomb exploded near his Humvee. He was manning a gun aboard the vehicle when insurgents detonated the bomb outside of Tikrit.
     By the summer of 2015, enough funds were raised from various organizations and individuals in Boone County to have Ray "Bubba" Sorenson paint a Freedom Rock for Boone County, just as he has for numerous other Iowa counties with a goal of doing the same for ALL 99 Iowa counties.
     Sorensen says he had the plan for the Boone County rock imagined long before he started the process. He had always been amazed by photos of trains going across the Kate Shelley Bridge. After seeing the bridge in person, Sorensen wanted to paint on the rock a draped flag to blend into the sky behind the streaming train.
     The back side of the rock features President Dwight Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, who's birthplace is located in Boone at 709 Carroll Street.
     The rock also pays tribute to a pair of Boone County heroes........with personal paintings of Sgt. Sesker and Iowa Army National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Marilyn Gabbard, a former Boone resident and the first woman in the history of the Iowa guard to be killed in combat.
     Gabbard was a passenger on a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter when it crashed January 20, 2007, northeast of Baghdad. She served as the non-commissioned officer in charge of the National Guard Affairs Team in Baghdad.
     Sorensen met with the families of both victims and commented, "I love to learn about our veterans and their history, especially those who've made the ultimate sacrifice. Meeting with family members has added to my continued inspiration on this tour and is, hopefully, seen in this artwork."
     A wonderful memorial tribute to our Boone County veterans is well underway and will, hopefully, soon be completed.
     Plans for landscaping around the rock and the purchase of flag poles, each one representing a branch of the armed services, will be made to finalize the tribute. The site will also become handicap accessible. Its estimated $50,000 will be needed for closure and there are two ways for this funding.
     Outright donations are always accepted and friends or family members of veterans also have an opportunity to purchase a paver, a special, more personal way of contributing......just like Bob Hammond, BHS-53, recently did. He layed a paver that he sponsored on behalf of his son, Brian, a veteran who passed away in May of 2019.
     Fred Greiner has sparked this project and deserves much credit for spending many hours raising funds and seeking supporters.
     If you would like to help, additional information is available on the Boone County Freedom Rock website. Mr. Greiner can be reached via phone......515-230-0174 or by mail......622 Brookridge Drive, Boone, Iowa 50036. Forms are also available at KWBG, the Adobe or the Veterans Affairs Office.
     Checks should be made out to the Boone City Parks Foundation, Attention: Freedom Rock and can be sent to Greiner.
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     Spurred on by a note from Bill Olson, BHS-62, a week ago, we're starting an investigation  into former Toreador drum majors and/or those who were the Toreador mascot.
     This got started because Olson was seeking contact information on Chuck McCubbins, BHS-59. Olson wrote, "ALSO looking for all those who wore the old Toreador outfit." The Kornerman  is thinking that means McCubbins was a drum major.
     The investigation is just beginning and the Kornerman needs HELP.
     Tom Peterson, BHS-67, mentioned Chuck Solheim as drum major from his class and I think other high-steppers were Doug Gustafson, BHS-61, and Dr. Bill Martin, BHS-66. The Kornerman is wondering if Bob Carpenter, BHS-52, and maybe Marlyn Wiemer, BHS-53, were also drum majors. I don't know if he was a drum major or Toreador or both but I know Dave Oppedahl, BHS-59, looked terrific in a Toreador outfit.
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     BOONE CONNECTED DEATHS: Dorothy Pike Garland, 88, Boone. BHS-50.........Virleen Garner Burke, 87, Longmont, CO. BHS-52. In her last year, she left Boone to live close to her sister, Connie Garner-Blake, in Colorado. Her sister and numerous nieces and nephews survive........Eunice Collins North, 80, Boone. Grew up in Council Bluffs. Married Clay North in 1959 and the couple moved to Boone as Clay started work as a state trooper. Through the years, Eunice worked for Iowa Power and Light, drove a bus for Boone County Education Library, was a secretary at the CPA office and the Methodist Church. Survivors include two daughters, Jacquie Hyatt and Bobi Treganza both of Boone. A brother also survives.
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     Worldwide Korner headquarters are located at 928 South Jackson, Boone, Iowa 50036-4932. Phone number is 515-432-1530. Leave a message. To email your stories/memories/comments.....
kelleyskorner1@gmail.com.