Longtime rural Lone Tree residents Carl and Wilma Ogren will celebrate a remarkable milestone on Tuesday, Feb. 23, their 80th Wedding Anniversary, it was announced this week by family.
The couple currently resides at Pioneer Park Care Center, Lone Tree. Due to visual decline, cards cannot be fully enjoyed. COVID restrictions do not allow visits. Their phone number is the same one they have had since rotary phones replaced crank phones.
Carl Ogren married Wilma Lehman on Feb. 23, 1941 in the home of the bride’s parents southwest of West Liberty. The couple had one child, Rick (Sherry) Ogren, also of Lone Tree, who gave them two grandchildren, Ashlee (Brenton) Wood and Alex (Madeline) Ogren. They also have two great grandchildren Cohen and Ailey Woods and another is on the way.
Carl Ogren celebrated his 100th birthday on Thursday, April 30. He lived in Muscatine and Johnson counties all his life. He had a eighth grade education through a one-room school house near Nichols while she was also part of the West Liberty School District, getting through 10 grades.
The couple moved into town from their 160-acre farm, where they had lived for 70 years, south of Lone Tree in 2017, living in a home built for them, before being moved to Pioneer Park in late December.
In an interview before Carl’s 100th birthday, Carl said he asked Wilma to a dance on their first date, asking her to go to a movie with him the next night.
Carl and Wilma began their life together farming in Cedar Valley, near West Liberty. Over the years, Carl grew corn and beans and raised dairy cattle, pigs, sheep, and chickens. In his ‘spare’ time he would take on seasonal work at the Heinz plant in Muscatine.
The couple traveled in their younger days, taking trips to Colorado as well as taking on an annual horseback trail ride in Missouri. In 1982, after retiring, they became snowbirds – first in Arizona, then later in Texas.
The couple have a lot of relatives in the area including Wilma’s three brothers, Fred Lehman of Mt. Vernon as well as Walt and Bob Lehman, West Liberty, who will help them celebrate.