Marjorie Hartmann grew up on farms around Garland, Nebraska, or in Garland, itself (right across the street from the high school). She was probably about six years old when electricity reached the farm her dad rented. (He tried to buy a farm in the depression era, but, like many others, he lost it due to no rain to raise crops to pay for it. Thus, he had to rent land to farm.) Anyway, getting electricity was a big deal. Summers were very hot; winters very cold and difficult. The kids often were taken to school in a wagon pulled by "Pete and "Flynn" or we walked the four miles. Zion Lutheran was a school where most of the Lutheran kids attended. They had one teacher and about 55 pupils in all eight grades. There were nine in Marj's confirmation class and HS graduating class. She liked school, liked to laugh and "entertain" others. Sometimes, that didn't go over too well with other students and/or teachers. Marj went to work in Lincoln (State Farm) after she graduated HS at age 16.

Marj met Dan Heibel when he was attending Concordia with her brother, Richard (deceased). Dick brought him home to pick up some boots so the CU students could volunteer to help pile sandbags around the flooding river in Seward. Marj asked Dan to accompany her to State Farm's annual Christmas party. He agreed. Then she didn't hear from him again for a long, long, time. He finally wised up and called me for a date... a basketball game. The rest is history. They planned to marry after he graduated. Their wedding was to be on May 31--Memorial Day weekend. They were smacked head-on in a collision and Dan ended up in a body cast for five months and a body brace for another six months. They did get married that June...at Crete Memorial Hospital. A lot of people didn't give their marriage a snow balls chance in August. They first lived at St. John, Palmer, Kansas. Matt, Mark, and Micah are all Jayhawkers. They then moved South to St. Paul, Haven, Kansas. The school gym was across the driveway from our house, so the heibel sons could play in a gym anytime. Then they moved to Calvary, Lincoln. They guys grew up here. Then Dan and Marj moved north to Christ, Norfolk, then back to Lincoln and the "birth" of Lincoln Lutheran Senior High.