The reunion was held at the Lovilia Community building on Saturday, August 5th. Forty-four high school alumni attended along with their guests.
They were celebrating three important milestones. One was 54 years of Lovilia High School graduates. Two was the 117th year of the school’s history. Three was the 170th year of the town’s founding.
Two women were honored: Norma Barnes who taught at the Lovilia school for 35 years and just celebrated her 100th Birthday and Marilyn Kraber who served as the city of Lovilia’s clerk for fifteen years as well as handling the reservations for the community building from the time it was built and just retired from that duty this year.
Norma Barnes wore an original basketball warm up jacket in the school’s color: gold. Her daughter had acquired the jacket in the 1960’s when the locker rooms were being cleaned out. Alumni, Ruth Belzer, was tickled to see Norma wearing it. She played basketball when in high school, and Ruth said, ” I probably wore that very jacket!’
Richard Jones was so happy to see a former classmate, Jim Sickler, from California whom he had not seen or even knew his whereabouts. A special chance to catch up with each other’s lives.
Also attending were about 100 persons who grew up in Lovilia, continue to live there, or went a few years to Lovilia elementary school before it closed.
The planning committee wished to thank all the volunteers for preparing the food, decorations, etc. to share Lovilia memories and Lovilia pride.
Miami Lake Receives Funding
The Publicly Owned lakes program administered by Iowa Dept. of Ag and Land Stewardship and the Dept. of Natural Resources will give funding to six public Iowa lakes. The funds are given to protect and improve water quality. The local soil and water conservation districts submitted an application for the funds. The funds are used to improve watersheds. Private landowners are then eligible to receive additional cost-share for practices that improve water quality. This would include cover crops, terraces, grade stabilization structures, water and sediment control basins, and grassed waterways. The amount for Lake Miami conservation will be $47,250. Improved water quality benefits every citizen. We can be grateful for our lake having been chosen.
Adoration on August 15th
St. Peter’s Catholic Church hosted a day of Adoration for all Monroe County Catholics. Mass at 9 am was followed by 14 prayers who spent up to an hour in prayer until the next prayer arrived. Prayers continued until 9pm. This is the day Catholics celebrate the assumption into heaven of the Virgin Mary, body and soul. It was a blessing to have prayers going up for twelve hours for the needs of our world.
Field Day Held at Hogeland Farm
John Hogeland and Beth Hoffman (his wife), live on the long- held family farm just west of Lovilia. They held a field day for a group, Practical Farmers of Iowa, they are members of.
Visitors took a hayride out to the pasture to see what type of plants they were feeding the cattle and then goats when the cows are moved to a new section of pasture. John moves the cattle and fence to keep them in a small area about every two days. This keeps them from overgrazing and getting fresh food frequently. He follows the cows with meat goats in the same way. The goats would be a godsend for any farmer because the love to eat multi flora rose and weeds like iron weed that cattle don’t eat and are invasive. He also has planted natural prairie-plants that will have longer roots, do well in harsh weather, and have shown to prevent soil erosion better than other grasses. John and Beth are not using pesticides or herbicides so they can produce organically. They even quit using fly poison on the cattle and found that after a tough transition period, the natural enemies of flies returned, and the cows did better without the poison and flies were greatly reduced.
Then John grilled beef burgers of their own grassfed cattle. They were so tasty and tender. We also had salad and yellow watermelon they had raised. All tasty. After the meal was a question- and- answer period that helped the guest farmers consider ideas they could use.
John and Beth are marketing their goats at Colfax or Kalona. If you want to order beef from them which is processed at a nearby locker, contact John and Beth at: johnbutcherman@gmail.com or bethaudio@gmail.com. The have some veggies and melons too. Ask how you can buy them. They will be happy to serve you!
John Popson Obit
John passed away on August 16, 2023. He was born in Hiteman, Iowa to John and Irene (Biros) Popson on June 5, 1942. As he grew up, he helped on the family farm and assisted at mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Weller as an altar boy.
He graduated with the Albia high school class of 1960 and then entered the National Guard.
He married Martha Plum on November 18, 1967. They were blessed with four children: Audrey, Andy, Mary, and Tina.
John worked at Massey Ferguson, Knoxville Comm. Schools, and ran his own business, Popson’s Repair Service. He also loved outdoor hobbies, working on vehicles, carpentry work, serving with the Knights of Columbus and Iowa Democrats. Anyone who knew him knows he was an avid story- teller including stories about his youth in Weller and gems of wisdom he had learned over the years.
Surviving him are his wife, his three daughters, grandchildren, and siblings.
Preceding him in death were his parents; son, Andy; three siblings and a brother-in-law.
A mass of Christian burial was held August 28, 2023 at St. Anthony’s in Knoxville. Interment with military honors will be held at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Weller, Iowa at a later date.
May he rest in peace.
New Beary Baby
Wesley and Jenny Beary welcomed a baby girl on August 26, 2023 to their family. She joins a four year old sister. Maternal grandparents are from Wisconsin and paternal grandparents are David and Susan Beary of Lovilia. Welcome to our world!